The ’Inner Worlds’ film series visits creatives in the places that inspire them 

Few know that Massimo Bottura, founder of the world-renowned Osteria Francescana, is also an avid art collector. His three-Michelin-starred Modena restaurant has twice been named the best in the world, yet Bottura is known as much for his culinary innovation as for his ability to weave food, art, and philosophy into a coherent – if often surprising – whole.

In this episode of ‘Inner Worlds’, Bottura welcomes us to Casa Maria Luigia, the guesthouse and personal archive he shares with his wife, Lara Gilmore, on the outskirts of Modena. Inside, artworks by Ai Weiwei, Joseph Beuys, JR, and Carlo Benvenuto hang alongside family photographs and antique pasta boards. ‘We look at tradition 10 kilometers away, filtered through a contemporary mind,’ Bottura says in the film. ‘I’m never nostalgic – always critical. To get the best from the past into the future.’

That balance – between reverence and rupture – defines both his cuisine and worldview. Whether he’s talking about dropping a 2,000-year-old vase or reimagining tortellini, Bottura draws constant parallels between the kitchen and the studio. ‘I don’t see a vase,’ he says, gesturing toward Ai Weiwei’s provocative work, crafted of legos. “I see Italian cuisine – I see tradition.”

With characteristic exuberance, Bottura invites us into his world – one where the table is always set for the unexpected guest, and where a plate of pasta can become both a memory and a provocation.