A culinary pop-up featuring iconic dishes from Italy’s Osteria Francescana, tagged at Rs 65,000 per person, has sold out in New Delhi.
The reason? Chef Massimo Bottura.
Bottura, one of the world’s greatest Italian chefs, has brought a team from his Michelin three-star restaurant, Osteria Francescana, to The Leela Palace New Delhi to cook his biggest hits. The two pop-up dinners will take place on April 21 and 22, 2023, at the hotel’s chic French-Italian restaurant Le Cirque. Each dinner will accommodate around 60 diners.
Based in Modena, Italy, the 12-table Osteria Francescana received the top ranking in the World’s Best 50 Restaurants in 2016 and 2018. (The rules were later changed to retire restaurants from the list after they’ve been ranked #1).
Osteria Francescana, the 12-table restaurant Bottura started in Modena in 1995, is widely recognised as one of the most difficult restaurant reservations in the world
The collaboration has been created by Culinary Culture, a platform that creates ultra-exclusive culinary experiences, and The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts.
“Massimo is the world’s greatest Italian chef and one of the world’s greatest-ever chefs. The two dinners on Friday and Saturday will feature some of Massimo’s greatest hits — The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna and Oops I Dropped the Lemon Tart,” said Vir Sanghvi, co-founder of Culinary Culture.
Chefs Massimo Bottura and Manish Mehrotra in Delhi on Wednesday Courtesy: Vir Sanghvi
“It’s an honour to have Massimo and his team back with us in India. The response has been overwhelming. His dinners in Mumbai in April 2022 sold out within minutes, and for the Delhi edition there is a long waiting list,” said Raaj Sanghvi, CEO, Culinary Culture.
Massimo’s plates are tied to emotion and nostalgia. The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna, debuted at Osteria Francescana in 1995, is meant to evoke childhood memories of eating lasagna at the table made by a loving grandmother.
The special menu created for New Delhi will feature vegetarian and non-vegetarian renditions of Bottura’s signature dishes (left) ‘Oops I Dropped the Lemon Tart’, (right) ‘The Crunchy Part of the Lasagne’ and ‘Psychedelic Cod Not Flame Grilled’, amongst others
Oops I Dropped the Lemon Tart was created when Francescana sous chef Taka Kondo accidentally dropped a lemon tart before serving it. The story goes that Massimo told the Japanese chef that by dropping the tart, he’d broken the border between sweet and savoury. It was, to Massimo, a metaphor for keeping space for poetry in everyday life.
The Francescana family trying the Naan Bukhara with Vir and Raaj Sanghvi at ITC Maurya, Delhi Courtesy: Raaj Sanghvi
Massimo arrived in Delhi on April 19. His food outings included a visit to Indian Accent restaurant helmed by chef Manish Mehrotra, and ITC Maurya’s Bukhara, where he tried the Naan Bukhara.
That the Rs 65,000-per person dinner in Delhi is sold out on both days perhaps defies the title of his book, Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef.
Bottura signing copies of his book ‘Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef’ released in 2014 Courtesy: Massimo Bottura / Instagram