Massimo Bottura's restaurant Osteria Francescana won the top prize at this year's World's 50 Best Restaurants Award, beating competition from Virgilio Martínez, Elena Arzak, Heston Blumenthal and more. In this interview, he gives Condé Nast Traveller the inside track on where to find the best ingredients in the world – from Montreal to Hong Kong.
PICKLE JUICE FROM ISTANBUL
‘I know it sounds questionable – when I was told to taste it I must have made a funny face – but this is great. I was taken to Asri Turşucu, a tiny 100-year-old shop on Ağa Hamami Sk last year just to eat the pickles – turnip was my favourite. The liquid is sharp and sour, and actually lovely.’
MAPLE SYRUP FROM MONTREAL
‘Ever since I first tried it, I’ve been collecting bottles of the stuff. It may not be the craziest ingredient, but we’re finding all kinds of uses for it at our restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena. It’s particularly good in our new foie-gras-filled apple pudding.’
FISH SOUP FROM BALI
‘On my first night at COMO Shambhala Estate, in Bali, I was blown away by a traditional fish soup that was spicy, sweet, fragrant and acidic all at the same time. I asked the chef to teach me the recipe and the next day we had a cooking lesson. There were so many layers of flavour created by using all kinds of indigenous roots and leaves – produce that would be very difficult to source anywhere else. I also learnt that there are some things you can’t recreate, and so ate this soup every single night.’
PARMIGIANO REGGIANO CRUSTS FROM ITALY
‘The qualities of Emilia-Romagna’s Parmesan are obvious, but I haven’t said enough about the crusts, which have so much flavour and natural salt. They can be chopped or sliced and added to soups for texture as well as being brilliant seasoning for broths. Too often ingredients like these are discarded because people don’t know how much they can bring to a dish.’
XIAO LONG BAO DUMPLINGS FROM HONG KONG
‘An 80-year-old woman on the streets of Hong Kong taught me how
to make these dumplings. Learning new skills like this is the only way to
keep evolving. The technique involves adding gelatin to the dumpling filling, which keeps it moist and enhances the flavour. I have since applied this idea to a traditional ravioli of pork cotechino sausage and lentils.’
‘BREAD IS GOLD’ COOKBOOK
‘More than 60 amazing chefs gave their time, energy and support to this project. These are the recipes we cooked for the 100 homeless guests at the Refettorio Ambrosiano in Milan. And it’s more than just a straight cookbook: it’s full of ideas on what to do with scraps, from meatballs and gazpacho to bread pudding.’
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