MFWF Review 1 - Massimo Bottura - Theatre Of Ideas

Burch & Purchese were lucky enough to spend a little time with Massimo Bottura, the talented chef from acclaimed restaurant Osteria Francescana. Massimo was over for the festival to participate in the Theatre Of Ideas event at BMW edge in Federation Square on Sunday 21st of March. His restaurant holds two Michelin stars and is situated in Modena, Italy and the man himself was as humble and polite as anyone you could meet. It was a pleasure for us just to be in his company over the festival and it thrills us to be up son stage with a culinary master such as this. Massimo's food is right out of the box but still with a firm respect for classical cookery. He says that, like an artist, his food is and outlet for his emotions and the plate is his blank canvas. During his highly engaging and thoughtful presentation last Sunday, Massimo demonstrated his dish "The potato that wants to be a truffle". This concept arose from the similarities in flavour profile of the two ingredients, but the real twist was that it was a dessert! Or was it? These were the questions that Massimo was trying to ask the audience, clearly this dish was conceptualized over a long period of testing and uses his wealth of experience. The dish was presented to host Matt Preston who was excited to be tasting such an evolutionary dish and we were thrilled when Mr Preston walked to the top of the auditorium to ask us to try Massimo's dish. The dish comprised of a sweet potato filling with sweetened hazelnuts, vanilla foam and a generous topping of black truffle. We were surprised as we tasted the dish, as it turned from a dessert sensation, to something more savoury and back again. It was thoughtful food and we have to say a big thanks to Matt for thinking of us, we think he was trying to open our minds to possibilities in dessert making and it certainly did. We can't wait to visit Modena one day to sample the whole menu, but for now we are grateful to have been in the company of and tasted the food of such a great inspirational chef. Check out the website for Massimo's award winning restaurant. http://www.osteriafrancescana.it/