A meal of a lifetime at Osteria Francescana

My wife Namrata and I have idolized Chef Massimo Bottura for a few years now. His restaurant, Osteria Francescana in Modena has been on top of our restaurant wishlist of all time. Awarded the best restaurant in the world in 2016 and 2018 (in the top 3 since 2013) as well as being featured in the opening episode of Chef’s Table has made Chef Massimo the most sought after Chef in the whole world. It’s also the only Italian restaurant in the Best of the Best list.

Modena and Emilia Romagna:

Modena, a province in the Northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna is known as the land of fast cars and slow food. It is the birthplace of the legendary Italian luxury sports car manufacturer Ferrari and the man himself, Enzo Ferrari. As Michael Schumacher was my favorite F1 driver in his prime, Ferrari has a special place in my heart. But for us, this trip was about slow food. This food valley is also known as the food capital of Italy and has given the world Balsamic Vinegar, Parmiggiano Reggiano, Parma Ham, and Mortadella. Along with the high quality of ingredients from the region, a bottle of Balsamic Vinegar and a wheel of Parmiggiano Reggiano is filled with years, decades and centuries of patience and care.

Ingredients here, are made, not produced.

Reservation at Osteria Francescana:

The restaurant’s seating capacity has been unchanged since it’s inception and only has 12 tables. Coupled with the recent popularity, it’s one of the hardest places to get a reservation at. Reservations open 3-4 months in advance and are available on the first of every month at 10:00 am CET. We recommend getting to their reservations page at least 30 minutes before the reservations go online. Being online on multiple devices (phones, tablets, laptops) will give you more choices. Make sure screen auto-lock and sleep mode is disabled on your devices while you are waiting, avoid refreshing the waiting page. They have a Chef’s menu and A La Carte menu to pick from after you have got a table, pricing details on their website.

Food:

One of the best parts about eating at Osteria Francescana is being surprised and blown away with every course. So, skip reading the rest of this section if you are planning to go here in the next few months.Theme: Chef Massimo mostly uses local ingredients found around Modena in the Emelia Romagna region. Elevating local ingredients, he’s always trying to tell stories through his food. We opted for the 12-course Chef’s menu which was based on the journey of the river Po. We also chose the recommended wine pairing and added a couple of extra a la carte entre’ es.

Bread & Amuse-Bouche: To start off, we were served breadsticks and sourdough bread. Fortunately, there was no butter which we were thankful for because it is easy to get carried away with fresh bread and butter. The Amuse-Bouches were bold, strong and prepped us well for the night. Our favorite was a unique representation of Fish and Chips – fish ice-cream decked on top of deep-fried potato-base. The tapered sardine skins were in fact, bread crisps brushed with edible paint and housed eel cream.
Breadsticks and Sourdough bread
Fish and Chips
Foie Gras Lollipop with Balsamic Vinegar and Crunchy Sardine
Macroon filled with chicken mousse and borlengo with Parmiggiano Reggiano Bread and Amuse-Bouche
Course 1 – Pollution Revolution: A dish served in an oyster shell portraying the degradation of our water bodies. It was made up of cucumber water, herbs, and oyster foam.

Pollution Revolution

La vie en Rose as an oyster: A very refreshing course of the oyster with fresh shallots, trout roe, rose water broth and local Lambrusco wine.

La vie en Rose as an Oyster

‘Caviaro’, da Messisbugo a oggi: Inspired by the legendary Italian Chef, Cristoforo di Messisbugo from the 16th century, the name of the dish translates to “from Messisbugo to today”. The earliest recipe incorporating Beluga Sturgeon Caviar in Italy is found in Chef Messisbugo’s cookbooks. Chef Massimo’s version was a mysterious, unusually textured dish made up of egg cream, fresh shrimp, sturgeon caviar, burnt onion, and prosciutto. This dish was gushing with a flavor of Umami, undoubtedly one of the highlights of our night.
Egg cream, fresh shrimp and sturgeon caviar hidden by dark layer of burnt onion and prosciutto
Caviaro
Rice between fresh and saltwater: Our next course was Risotto rice cooked in a broth of fish and orange juice with a marinated sea bass filet at the bottom. This was a comforting, seemingly simple dish that helped calm our taste buds after two overwhelming dishes that preceded the Risotto.
An eel swimming up the Po river: This is one of the earliest dishes introduced by Chef Massimo that has stood the test of time. The eel is smeared with Saba (cooked grape juice, unconcentrated pre-balsamic vinegar) throughout and burnt onion powder on top. It’s served with Polenta cream on the right side and jam made out of fresh Campanino Apples, another gem from the region.

An eel swimming up the Po river

The Garden in Spring: A crumbly base enamored with fresh produce from the garden; it included white truffle, black cabbage, and celeriac.

The Garden in Spring

Snow under the Sun: A snail bourguignon served with potato and mushroom cream.

Snow under the Sun

Five ages of Parmiggiano Reggiano: Regarded as the King of Cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano is revered by people from the Emilia Romagna region. Our server described this dish as being made up of only two ingredients, “Cheese and Time”. Experiencing this dish first hand will be the memory we look back to when we talk about Osteria Francescana years from now. It’s one of the greatest if not the greatest thing we have ever eaten.24-month old cheese as a hot demi souffle
30-month old cheese as a warm creamy sauce
36-month old cheese presented as a chilled foam
40-month old cheese baked into a paper-thin galette
50-month old cheese transformed into Parmigiano water along with a cloud of tiny white pockets of air. Literally, air? This was the tastiest air we have ever breathed.Hear Chef Massimo talk about this masterpiece in this Video.

Five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano

Tagliatelle with Ragù: This classic Bolognese dish put Chef Massimo on the world map. Once you have tasted this dish, you sympathize with Italians who hate their beloved dish being butchered into Spaghetti Bolognese.

Tagliatelle with Ragu

Guinea Hen: the next 3 courses were all chicken courses prepared using different techniques and different parts of a chicken.Potato ravioli in roasted Guinea Hen sauce: Ravioli that looks like a Gyoza is stuffed with chicken served in a rich reduced chicken sauce.
Guinea hen a l’argille, a tribute to the Cantarellis: Chicken breast cooked with leftover Pork incorporates the Sous-vide technique, a low-temperature, prolonged cooking technique that helps cook food evenly and also retain moisture.
Guinea hen crunchy skin, savor livers and truffle: Chicken skin chips, liver parfait, chocolate, and black truffle make up the final savory course of the night.
Potato ravioli in roasted Guinea Hen sauce
Guinea hen a l’argille
Guinea Hen Crunchy Skin
Spring is coming: Granita, fruit origami – a tune for the eyes, a melody for the tongue.

Spring is coming

Here the Po is born: this dessert looks much like the mountains where the river Po is born. In spite of it being the starting point of the river, Chef Massimo held it back and presented it as the last course of the night. Instead of starting with the origins of the river and then slowly moving towards dishes that depict pollution and harm we have caused to nature, the Chef reverses the order and sends you home with a thought about the humble, pure beginnings of a mighty river.

Here the Po is born

Coffee: Here’s Namrata, trying out a classic Italian espresso.

Madeleines, tiramisu, chocolate parfait with truffles: You can’t end an Italian dinner without eating Tiramisu, so that was indeed the last bite of our night.
Madeleines
Tiramisu, Chocolate Parfait and Truffles

Closing Thoughts:

It was undoubtedly the best meal of our lives, a humbling gastronomic journey. Chef Massimo is an artist and he wants to tell you a story; a story of his life, about his loved ones, a story about Modena, the Po river, the region’s aging processes, and cooking techniques. In questo processo, he isn’t willing to compromise the slightest bit on his art of cooking.Our favorite part of the night was when Chef Massimo dropped by to talk to the guests. He has the energy and the enthusiasm of a 10-year old kid and he’s exactly the way you imagine him to be. In the few minutes he spoke with us, he was humble, talkative, funny, energetic, a person you would instantly connect with and become friends with. He gave us advice when he heard about my wife’s career ambition to follow in his footsteps and become a chef. He spoke about his sacrifices, his hardships and how looking back at them now, he feels it was all worth it. He ended the conversation saying, “Cooking is an act of love” with a big hearty smile reassuring it will all be worth it. His parting gift to us a bottle Balsamic Vinegar from his special collection.

Balsamic Vinegar from Chef Massimo’s special collection

The subdued, little entrance
Kids in the candy store

Buon Appetito!

  CategoriesEating Out  TagsBest Restaurant, italian, Massimo Bottura, modena, Osteria Francescana, Three Michelin Star