A visit to the visionary chef at his art-filled Casa Maria Luigia in Modena
Massimo Bottura, world-renowned chef, art collector, and founder of the legendary Osteria Francescana – a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Modena that has twice been named Best Restaurant in the World – is a figure who defies easy categorization. His work is marked by boundary-breaking creativity, blending gastronomy, contemporary art, and philosophy in unexpected ways.
For Bottura, tradition is not a rigid concept, but rather a raw material – something to be transformed through the lens of the present:
“We look at tradition from ten kilometers away – filtered through a contemporary mind. I’m never nostalgic, always critical. That’s how we bring the best of the past into the future.”
A House of Art and Hospitality: Casa Maria Luigia
In this episode of Inner Worlds, Bottura and director Nicolo Terraneo open the doors to Casa Maria Luigia – a lovingly restored guesthouse just outside Modena, which Bottura shares with his wife Lara Gilmore.
But this is far more than a place to stay: it is a living archive, an art gallery, and an embodiment of Bottura’s philosophy. Works by Ai Weiwei, Joseph Beuys, JR, and Carlo Benvenuto hang alongside family photographs, antique pasta boards, and sculptural design pieces – creating a unique interplay of reverence and reinvention.
Whether he’s reimagining tortellini or contemplating the symbolic act of dropping a 2,000-year-old vase, Bottura shows that even a simple plate of pasta can become a social gesture, a memory, and a provocation all at once.
🎥 NOWNESS – A Platform for the Remarkable
Inner Worlds is part of a video series produced by NOWNESS, the award-winning platform for creative storytelling. Since its launch in 2010, NOWNESS has offered beautifully curated short films on art, design, fashion, music, food, and culture – always with the goal of turning the everyday into the extraordinary.
With films like this one, NOWNESS opens intimate, emotional windows into the minds of visionary creators – told through atmospheric visuals and rich, sensory detail that inform and inspire.
NOWNESS:
🌐 www.nowness.com