Massimo Bottura's Ceasar Salad in Bloom

One of the first things you see inside the door of Massimo Bottura’s restaurant, Osteria Francescana, in Modena, Italy, is a self-portrait of the artist Joseph Beuys posing like a stand-in for the Sundance Kid; the inscription at the bottom, in Italian, says, “We are the revolution.”

Bottura (@massimobottura) has been a force in a culinary revolution for years now, but not necessarily in a way that ignites sweeping movements. Chefs like Ferran Adrià and René Redzepi have influenced thousands of acolytes (and copycats), but Bottura’s handwork is of a more private and idiosyncratic strain: He cooks food that’s about Italy and family and history and memory and art, yes, but ultimately his eclectic platings and flavor combinations reflect the miasmic workings of his own mind.

Pictured: Ceasar Salad in Bloom, a sweet salad that tastes like dessert with powdered berries and stone fruits painstakingly hidden within lettuce leaves.

“From Massimo Bottura, the Chef Behind the World’s Best Restaurant” by Jeff Gordinier for the New York Times, 2016; Photo by Bea De Giacomo (@beadegiacomo)

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