My weekend with Lara Gilmore, the powerhouse behind the Massimo Bottura brand

The beauty of Emilia-Romagna is it lacks the patina of Italy’s other regions. This is not Tuscany, Amalfi or Umbria. No, this is a picture of Italy where gourmet traditions sparkle, agricultural myth and legend dance and an operatic legacy (Pavarotti and Verdi, no less) unfold.

Drive along the never-ending stretch of the Via Emilia (the old Roman road that connects most major cities), and you’ll find an endless medley of ancient towns. There are hilltop fortresses, gloomy mountains, roads lined with regal palazzi, renowned art galleries and a handful of world-leading museums. And, of course, Emilia-Romagna has the one thing no other place in Italy can lay claim to: Massimo Bottura.

Utter Massimo's name on the storied streets of Modena, and eyes fill with pride. Bottura is the maestro of slow food and fast cars (coincidentally the name of his latest cookbook), but he doesn't understand the concept of living in the slow lane. His empire spans continents. There’s the flagship Osteria Francescana and the more casual date-night staple Franceschetta58 in Modena; tables at Gucci Osteria by Massimo Bottura in Florence, Beverly Hills, Seoul and Tokyo; the Cavallino restaurant in partnership with Ferrari in Maranello; Torno Subito in Dubai; as well as the global non-profit Food for Soul, which includes countless soup kitchens across the globe.

Massimo might be an astronomical star, sure. But the driving spirit behind his culinary kingdom lies elsewhere. With his wife.

“You have no idea who I am, do you?” Lara Gilmore asks me as we drive to her swish inn and latest passion project, Casa Maria Luigia. The truth is, I didn't really. I first saw her at a party in London, where guests hovered for a chance and speedy meeting with someone Google defines as ‘Massimo Bottura’s wife’. Two months later, I am at one of Italy’s most talked about hotels, walking through the orchards and vegetable patches with the most powerful and influential woman in Italian gastronomy.

Like her husband, this down-to-earth New Yorker is driven not by fame, fortune, or notoriety, but by a reverent passion for food, art and the community. While Massimo will forever be the face of the brand and its Michelin-starred restaurants, it’s Lara who oversees everything from its growth to its global marketing initiatives. She’s co-author of all of the Bottura cookbooks. Her father was editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest, and she learned the art of editing stories, no matter their subject, from a young age.

“My dad would edit the magazine with all these different-coloured pencils,” she tells me as we chat muses on the road to Modena. “He was a late-night owl, like me, and I would watch and participate in the editing of media…It had a huge influence on me and shaped much of how I operate today.”

But it’s Lara’s mother, Janet, whose hospitable spirit affected her most. “My mother is a very particular woman. She was the kind of person that would sneak into a party, meet the chef, take their recipes, and make them at home for her brilliant dinner parties.” These soirees, Lara admits, served as her introduction to the world of hospitality.

The restaurateur fondly recalls that her mother taught her about the art of entertaining. “My sister and I were her helpers in the kitchen, and it’s thanks to her that I’m so obsessive about every single detail.”

This obsessiveness is very much part of the success of the brand. The hotel is immaculate. The car hideously organised. The gardens meticulously landscaped. The client researched beyond their own comprehension. “Whatever we are working on, I shove my own ego aside and put myself in the seat of the diner’s experience. My mother created magic out of nothing, reinvented herself and imagined what she could become, and that’s very much how I see myself doing things.”

As we steer up the highway with the Apennine mountains in the background, a picture of pride flushes Lara’s face. She eyes me up, hands waving, passionately lamenting that her mother was cooking things nobody was thinking of in Westchester back in the Sixties. “She had the machines, she watched Julia Child, and she’d teach us how to make dumplings and egg rolls. We had a veggie garden which was rare in America at the time. She dared to take us to radical shows and exhibitions, and she partied at Studio 54 in New York. It was the most unconventional upbringing you could have in America at the time. She was ahead of it all.”

In Modena – Lara's adopted home – Lara’s hospitable spirit feels most at ease. Massimo's family is from the area, and it's where the couple opened the hotel and, before that, Osteria Francescana, the crown jewel of the Bottura brand.

Emilia-Romagna brings more Denominazione di Origine Protetta (meaning Protected Designation of Origin, or DOP for short) foods to the global stage than any other part of Italy. The exclusive certification basically encompasses foods that are farmed, cured, boiled, strung, slaughtered and spun using only traditional methods. To say that Emilians are proud of this is an understatement, and the Botturas are no exception. It's like the seal of approval of a Royal Warrant, and practically every shop spotlights local produce. The city itself is a mish-mash of old and new, where modern high rises slowly morph into rows of colourful palazzi, lively markets, narrow colourful streets and cobbled squares crowned by eateries, florists, countless coffee shops and the odd palazzi.

In just under two hours, Lara shows me every haunt she loves, her, restaurants or those the family has some connection to. There’s Salumeria Hosteria Giusti, a small typical four-table restaurant – book it months in advance – an artisanal food spot founded way back in 1598; Bar Schiavoni, her top choice for a quick panini lunch; Mercato Storico Albinelli, a covered market complete with greengrocers (some who supply Massimo directly); the butchers shop where Lara bought her first ever Thanksgiving turkey in Modena; and Cappuccino da Angiolina, a cute old-school coffee shop on the Vicolo Forni known for their palpation-inducing cappuccinos.

While we ducked into Osteria Francescana for a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of the kitchens, it’s the community spirit of family organisation Tortellante that strikes a chord with me most. The not-for-profit organisation was launched as a fresh pasta lab and workshop where young adults with autism learn to make traditional Modenese tortellini (much of it used by local restaurants including Osteria Francescana). Sitting at the table in the lab I meet Lara's son, Charlie, the star of the show, who himself has disabilities. Passionate, like his father and mother, he sets the table and the scene with razor-sharp precision, eyeing every detail to make sure everything from the salumi board to my rich bowl of tortellini is perfect. Was it? Of course it was.

Lara also oversees the Francescana family, a global team that has expanded beyond the streets of Modena, into the towns of Emila-Romagna and across the globe. Despite the ship getting bigger and bigger, the genius of her and Massimo’s Emilian operation, like the humble workings of Tortellante, is a business that uses its popularity to bring the culinary and the social together, one that creates a foodie universe hellbent on nurturing talent to create good in the most hyperlocal and extraordinary of ways. It’s, as she masterfully sums up, the Emilian way of “food doing good.”

While most brands say all this in PR fluff, Lara and the Bottura clan defy the trend and continue to actively scout out talent wherever they go. Driving through the hills of the Emilian countryside we stop to meet Chiara Condello, a young woman winemaker at Borgo Conde, a boozy resort perched high up in the hills of Cesena. Her beat is organic Sangiovese wines, so natural that everything from the pruning of the vines to the weeding, sowing and inspection of the soil is all done by hand. Her wine, she tells Lara and me over a lunch of handmade pasta and foraged mushrooms, is all about an “expression of the Emilian landscape, its history, and its soul.”

Her patch is pretty special, too. Touring the estate, she takes us to a little piece of land backdropped by a small forest 300 meters above sea level. Why is it so special, I ask? Chiara passionately explains it’s all to do with the calcareous clay soil. The entire stretch is rich in Pliocene sandstones called Spungone. Roughly three million years ago this smear of clay (much of it rich in fossilised coral) was under the Adriatic Sea. This history, she says, is the key to producing a Sangiovese wine that is unique and a little bit different. “Nobody in Italy makes wine like this…it’s unique to us, our region and its pure traditions.” It’s paid off. Countless vintages have won awards, and many local restaurants throughout the region serve her wine on their tables.

And then, of course, there’s the brilliant Jessica Rosval, a Bottura family protegee who, back in Modena, heads up the kitchens of Lara and Massimo’s hotel, Casa Maria Luigia. I first meet her in Gatto Verde, the hotel’s latest swish eatery. She’s cooked for the likes of Stanley Tucci, Europe’s glitterati and served as the chef de parti at Bottura's three-star Michelin-rated Osteria Francescana. The Canadian powerhouse is permanently based at Casa Maria Luigia, where she creates and prepares a menu that showcases Italian and Modenese cuisine. But ultimately, it’s her role as culinary director of the Association for the Integration of Women, a Modena-based association founded by an international group of friends, that shows just how ingrained she is within the Bottura food as a force for good philosophy. For Jess, it’s all about helping migrant women flourish in the kitchen, whatever their background.

The AIW project began with a sewing workshop that took shape with African women sewing face masks. It was so successful that they secured a collaboration with the historic sewing machine brand Necchi and temporarily hired eight women. Now, she teaches them how to cook, preparing them for a future in the restaurant industry while also encouraging them all to stay true to their own traditions. It’s a trade-off of cultures, inspired by “a shared love of food, flavours and knowledge,” she admits, an attitude very much shared by her mentors, Massimo and Lara, and of course, the Emilian people.

A shared love of food and knowledge is something you’ll encounter non-stop in Emilia-Romagna. With nine provinces, seeing it all can be quite a task. To get a flavour of it, Lara and I head for the coast. In Rimini, her passion for Fellini, the godfather of Italian cinema and a source of her and Massimo’s inspiration, takes hold. We pull up outside Grand Hotel Rimini, an Art-Nouveau grand dame once immortalised in film by the locally born director and frequent guest who once described its exotic gardens, liberty-pink façade and lofty terraces as “a fairy tale of wealth, luxury and pomp from the Orient”. From here we jump on bikes, whizzing around the famous Italian summer hotspot seafront first founded by the Romans back in 268 BC. We pass grandiose monuments, ancient walls, slick parks, the pretty neighbourhood of Borgo San Giuliano – awash with street art in an ode to Fellini’s greatest cult movies – the Amintore Galli Theatre, famed for the first performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aroldo; and the Ponte Tiberio, one of the finest preserved and complete surviving Roman bridges in Italy.

As an avowed Fellini-phile, Lara takes me to the Fellini Museum, a new experience dedicated to the director housed inside Rimini’s famed Cinema Fulgor movie theatre. We gawp at props, plus a vast array of his drawings, unpublished works, and nick-nacks, many of which have never been seen before. For Lara, it’s a trip down cinematic memory lane. For me? An education.

Escaping the coast, we dash for a quick tour of Faenza. After a whizz around the International Ceramics Museum, we head on up to Parma, arguably Emilia-Romagna’s most impressive architectural jewel after gourmet Modena. If you believe in reincarnation, pray you come back as a wheel of Parmesan. Nowhere else in Italy can you walk streets void of cars, feast on from-the-attic prosciutto and aged parmigiano reggiano, or quaff crisp, refreshing Lambrusco wine in regal art-nouveau cafes.

A mini-Turin, Parma is as regal as Italy gets. Having traversed every region in Italy, my mouth truly dropped when Lara took me inside the Duomo. Consecrated in 1106, the Lombard-Romanesque façade doesn’t seem that special from the outside, but once you step through its doors, ornate ceilings tell a story of Baroque bling you’ve seldom ever come across before. Up in the dome, Antonio da Correggio's Assunzione della Vergine (Assumption of the Virgin) is a kaleidoscopic swirl of cherubs and whirling angels, while in the southern transept, Benedetto Antelami's Deposizione (Descent from the Cross; 1178) relief is considered a masterpiece of its type, and puts Rome’s Sistine Chapel to shame. Nearby, the Battistero overshadows the cathedral with its octagonal pink-marble baptistery, and to this day, is still considered one of the most important such structures in Italy. A hybrid of Romanesque and Gothic architecture, the 13th-century frescoes painted in the Byzantine style are well worth a gawp.

For our last supper, we dine at La Filoma, a theatrical institution complete with chandeliers and a sassy host. I feast on my last (and perhaps my 13th) bowl of tortellini on the trip while Lara is entertained by the chef draped in a ladybird apron showing off his pasta-pressing (and making) skills. The wine? Coincidentally, a bottle of Maria Luigia. Spooky? It’s all part of the curated Emilian experience Lara tells me. “It’s one big family, connected by a love and respect for food.”

Driving back to the airport to catch my flight back to London the Bottura legacy comes full circle. It’s all about making the impossible possible. What Lara and her husband have with projects like Tortellante and the expansion of their hotel, is a drive and enthusiasm that sums up the Emilian people. Their empire is not just founded on food, but the mysteries and creative synergies of art, music, science, travel and that simple thing called curiosity. Lara tells me to imagine the art salons of the French painters from the 1920s and '30s. “I make a lot of references to art in everything in my life. It informs how I design everything from the hotel to the restaurants, to the menus, to the concepts,” she says with glee. Making connections between worlds and others is what drives her – and Massimo. “Creating the osmotic relationship, I see when an 80-year-old nonna teaches a 14-year-old autistic boy to make homemade pasta, fills me with joy. It’s the driving force of my life, and what makes the people of Emilia-Romagna special. It’s why I fell in love with the place, and my husband.”

And with that, Lara Gilmore filled my suitcase with aged Parmesan, balsamic vinegar aged in her hotel and a bottle of wine she told me to keep for a rainy day. My suitcase was 32kg.

Lara’s must-eat restaurants in Emilia-Romagna

“In Parma, Due Platani for a contemporary take on traditional cuisine. For something more traditional, don’t miss Cocchi. In Piacenza, La Tosa, a local wine producer in the hills. Try a glass of Sorriso di Cielo - Malvasia. In Faenza Trattoria La Baita, for top-quality traditional cuisine in the historic centre. In Bologna head to the covered walkway up to San Luca Sanctuary for a coffee or aperitivo (and a view) at Bar Vito. For something traditional, eat at Al Cambio or if you want modern Gastrobistro Ahimè. Classic dishes are best tried at Osteria Bottega, and those in search of a bar should discover Scuro.

In Rimini head to Trattoria da Lucio for something local and traditional. If you prefer something more casual, Nud e crud (Piadineria) is great and if it’s for something special, Ristorante da Guido which has one Michelin star. In Cesenatico, a seaside town near Rimini, go to Maré a seaside restaurant and bar that is open all year round. In Modena, Schiavoni Sandwich at Mercato Albinelli for an easy lunch. Trattoria Bianca is a great traditional 1960s trattoria for dinner. If you are in search of cocktails, Ex carceri in Downtown Modena has some of the best. For coffees, Mon Cafe (again in Downtown Modena) is the place to know and when it comes to live music and Jazz, check out Cotton Club. Oh, and the Francescana Family restaurants, of course.”