[Narrator] At his restaurant Osteria Francescana e Modena,
acclaimed chef Massimo Bottura
recalls childhood memories of his own family’s Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
and reflects on the passion that drives his relentless creativity.
[Massimo Bottura speaking] There's this amazing restaurant that we opened 23 years ago
in the middle of Pianura Padana (in the middle of the food valley).
I create a laboratory of ideas.
Is a place — is a small place where we do.... We create culture....
Uh. We became ambassador for our agriculture.
We train people.
It's an agent of tourism,
gastronomic tourism,
and now even ambassador for socials.
Is a place where we experiment and get deep into our knowledge.
Coin this, learn from there,
try to find a solution of problem on problems....
Put together the knowledge of people that are coming from all over the world.
You know, we are 60 people to serve 30 guests.
So, it's like...
And people from Japan, Mexico, United States, England, Canada....
....South of Italy, North of Italy, East, West, Croatia, Russia....
So, I have....
I have to let them express themselves
and tell me who they are and where they come from in an edible way.
And I can learn from them
and become better and better and better.
Let them express, let... let....
Push them to explain who they are and where they come from.
So, once this knowledge is developed....
And you start receiving prizes, you know, and uh....
Three-star Michelin, Best Chef in the World,
Best Restaurant in the World,
seven years and the three best restaurants....
Whatever, you know?
It's time to give back,
because your consciousness is open
and from consciousness to the consciousness of who you are,
and what you can do,
and from the consciousness of the sense of responsibility — the step is very short.
Once you reach the top of everything, um....
If you have culture, it's time to give back.
Culture, knowledge, consciousness, sense of responsibility....
So, it's extremely important to realize that and not to talk about just yourself,
but talk about the whole area and what you can do for the others.
And so, Osteria is all this.
It represents a way to look at Italian cuisine
in a very critical point of view and not from a nostalgic one.
To get the best from the best and, uh....
projecting to the future, guarantee the future of tradition.
Moderna, huh?
I said Moderna, no? Moderna, Moderna. Moderna is the land of slow food and fast cars.
Slow food. Why slow food?
Because we know from generations
to get the right thing, you have to wait.
Wait. To to fish the right fish, you have to wait.
And you know, until, you know, the right fish is coming
and getting deep and deep and deep is exactly the same thing with product.
To get the perfect Parmigiano, you have to wait.
The right season, the right milk,
you know, and when it's ready, it's ready.
It's like — is the way to preserve tradition.
And to me.....
I always said that Parmigiano is my muscles,
but in my veins, there's balsamic vinegar.
And I drink a lot — too much Lambrusco, so my head is spinning around
and always too confused and bubbly up in the sky I dream too much and too big.
Balsamic Vinegar — I'm gonna use balsamic vinegar. For me, it's always been balsamic vinegar as, you know,
It's something that, you know.....
When you are in the kitchen.....
You — first of all — you don't have to lose yourself in the everyday life.
You have to get the product,
and welcome the product in the kitchen as they were people.
Caress them, talking to them, understand them, taste them.
And then, the product — they're gonna talk to you.
Because this is the point — is your palate is the most important tool you have.
Chef, remember. Always remember. You know?
Your palate is the.....
And your brain.....
But, first of all the palate — is the most important —you have to....
You have to work with that, you have to ask, you have to question, you have to have doubt....
And you know, give answers.....
So, when you have such an incredible opportunity
to use a product like that,
you have to be very alert not to lose yourself in the everyday life....
and pay respect, so....
The end of the story.
You students!
You! Young generation!
If you have the right idea,
if you stimulate your palette,
if you can ask yourself question,
which you can give answers....
Trust yourself!
Because this is extremely important.
Is something that is going to stay with you forever.
Because once you learn you get deeper and deeper and deeper into things.
And when you trust yourself and you're confident with yourself, you create your own future.
But at the end of the day.....
being a chef.....
you have, uh.....
.....you confront two different, you know, journeys.
One — is follow tradition.
And then what you need, you need to be so straight....
To follow what other people wrote,
and buy the best ingredients, the best seasonal ingredients
and replicate day by day, not losing yourself in the everyday life.
Or! You decide to write your own music!
That is the most difficult thing ever.
And in what you do every day,
....you....
If you ask me, what I do every day in my life,
I answer....
I compress into edible bites — my passion.
Music, art, reading, food.
Sitting on centuries of history
because I'm sitting on centuries and centuries of tradition — Italian tradition....
Filter by a contemporary mind....
So, everything that comes out from that kitchen....
....is my mind, my ideas, okay?
So, the meaning is.....
Most of the time they ask me, where you take your inspiration? You know?
It's a great confusion (my brain). It's a chaos — creative chaos,
in which, you know, you're always *on.*
You listen to Billie Holiday, walking from Madison Park to Union Square,
deciding what you can create to express New York....
And you listen to "Autumn in New York" and, you know, you have, uh....
You have the idea.
Or you look at a Damien Hirst painting, spring painting.....
And you decide that instead of serving the sauces perfectly done with the right things,
to splash all the sauces on the plate and transform the side dishes into color.
Or.....
You see (Chef) Taka, that is almost killing himself
because he made a mistake and he drop a lemon tart in a plate,
and you decide to serve the second lemon tart smashed into the plate as the first one
and create oops I dropped a lemon tart as a.....
.....As a provocation in a three-michelin-star restaurant. Sorry, I broke a lemon tart!
serving a dream. Because once you realize that people, they want to come to Osteria Francescana
to eat — not just simple good food that you can eat in every place in the world,
but eat emotions....
At that point, the crunchy part of the lasagna is pure emotion.
The emotion of a kid that confronts his brothers
who steals the crunchy part of the lasagna when the grandmother was bringing the lasagna.....
....you know, in the middle of the table for Sunday lunch......
You know, we were fighting over the crunchy part!
So, I want every single person that comes to Osteria,
to try and eat the crunchy part of the lasagna.
So, at the end.... The inspiration?
It's memory,
it's culture,
it's passion.
When I — when I....
....What I can suggest to you guys....
It's get deep into your interests.
You have an interest — can be a motorcycle, can be whatever, music, you know.....
Get deep into your interest.
One day those interests, they became passion.
And through passion, you can transfer emotions.
[Inspiring Music]
you