Massimo Bottura is Italy’s modern magician of food. He translates the traditional flavours of his country into witty, artful, contemporary dishes – plates of food like his most famous creation, ‘five textures and temperatures out of Parmigiano Reggiano’.

His passion for food was ignited as a child, watching his mother, grandmother and aunt conjuring up family meals ‘under cascades of flour and Parmigiano Reggiano’. Despite this, Bottura was earmarked for a legal career; but he dropped out of law college and instead bought a trattoria on the outskirts of his hometown, Modena, in 1986.

Nine years later after training with French chefs George Coigny and Alan Ducasse, Bottura opened his world-renowned Modena restaurant, Osteria Francescana. Subsequent encouragement from the great Spanish molecular maestro Ferran Adrià set him firmly on the road to innovation – and many awards, including three-Michelin-stars and the Swedish White Guide Global Gastronomy Award in 2014. He has since opened two more restaurants – Franceschetta 58 in Modena, and Ristorante Italia di Massimo Bottura in Istanbul.

Home cooking opportunities are rare because of his work commitments, but when he cooks he reverts to traditional Italian fare – home-made egg pasta tortelloni, cotechino or veal tongue with salsa verde will often be on the table.

His home cooking environment of choice, he says, is a clean kitchen with an interesting record on the stereo (Bottura has 10,000 vinyl records); good ingredients in the pantry; friends or family around; and a good pair of sneakers (he owns hundreds of pairs) – ‘You can’t go wrong.’

Secret Food Haunt

Mercato Albinelli, a covered market dating from 1919, in the centre of Modena next to the main square. Stalls sell everything from dairy products with the best Italian cheeses to Italian pantry staples like olives, sardines, anchovies, baccalà, dried porcini or tomatoes, as well as fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish.