#3 Mystery: Osteria Francescana

Before the scientific findings that point out the fact that the descendants of the Etruscan people were actually Turkish, hit the headlines of the British newspaper “The Guardian”, this was actually something we’ve always known: “Turks and Italians are very similar!”

 

And the following explanation comes with a strong confidence and faith that would beat all these scientific researches: “In the end, we’re all Mediterranean people.”

 

The Mediterranean personality, as we call it so, shows up in every detail in our lives, ranging from speaking loudly in excitement, to our incredible fondness for and devotion to children, olive oil consumption, our impatience while driving and waiting in line.

 

This similarity is so common that you can hear people saying “I didn’t know they do it the same way we do it!” while watching “The Godfather” that entered our lives 42 years ago with the legendary character, Vito Corleone.

 

According to this friendly comparison between the Italian and the Turkish, I think the best and the most prominent similarity is the dining culture accompanied by its indispensable chats and glee.

 

Similar to the dinner tables with people laughing and eating in a cozy atmosphere in Ferzan Özpetek movies, when it’s time for dinner, Turkish families too gather around the dinner tables which are covered with white embroidered table cloths and transformed into a display of a rich variety of meals cooked with utter care.

 

 

 Although it’s a family dinner, it always comes with its bureaucracy. The head of the table always belongs to the grandfather. Having stayed up all night to cook several dishes with olive oil or meat, maybe stew or börek, the hero of the table is -without doubt- the grandmother.

 

The Italian cuisine is similar to our culture where the grandmother’s efforts and recipes are celebrated. As we would give a meal such names as “grandma’s meatballs” or “poğaça baked by my grandmother” to point out its value, this is also true for the Italian culture where the respect for elders is equally important.

 

The awarded chef of Osteria Francescana, an Italian restaurant known for having the highest points for the past 6 years, Massimo Bottura has been cooking only his grandmother’s recipes using modern techniques according to his own words.

 

Osteria Francescana

 

Osteria Francescana was opened in 1995 in a small village called Modena where its chef was raised in. As it was awarded with its first star in 2002 and the second star in 2006, the restaurant was finally awarded with a third star in 2011 and thus succeeded to be internationally known and celebrated restaurant.

 

It’s been said that Bottura had been inspired by Ferran Adrian, the prophet of the molecular cuisine and his shrine, El Bulli. Other than Osteria Francescana, Bottura also owns “Franceschetta 58” which was opened in 2011 in Modena and has been serving “comfort food” since then.

 

The chef chose Turkey for his first restaurant venture outside Italy. The name of the restaurant will be “Ristorante Italia di Massimo Bottura” and it will start serving at Eataly Istanbul on May 27.

 

Osteria Francescana is located on a pedestrian street in Modena where is home to the main headquarters of many companies like Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini, Modena. If you don’t know its exact place or read its signboard, it’s almost unbelievable that it is the third best restaurant in the world.  The fine diner has only two rooms for the customers; the first one has a capacity for 10 people and the second one for 20 people.

 

With its Bottega Veneta tables and chairs, and the ironic pictures hanging on the walls created by the famous painters like Amadeo Modigliani, Maurizio Cattelan and Gavin Turk, the restaurant has an exciting atmosphere. What I liked most about the design is the humongous thin hanging lambs that create an enjoyable atmosphere with their interesting yet subtle design.

 

During my last visit to the restaurant in the late March, the other diners included a family with one child and two groups of businessmen. We were all excited waiting for the meals created by Bottura.

 

The restaurant offers three different menus:

 

Traditions (130 €), Classics (165 €) and Sensations (190 €) which was a seasonal menu of this experimental kitchen. And we started off our night choosing the Traditions menu with a few additions from the others.

 

First off, the table was served two baskets of breads including brioche and grissini. Even though they were pleasing to the eye, unfortunately their taste couldn’t keep up with how they look. Because they were neither hot enough nor crunchy. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I say it was the first slap in the face that night since everyone knows about how important the breads are to me to call the diner a “refined restaurant”.

 

Following the breads, Caesar salad couldn’t meet our expectations either after all the story that had been told by the servicing waiters. Although it is a highly-acclaimed salad in Emillia Region; in my opinion, it was a weak choice for the third best restaurant of the world.

 

However, following the salad, eel had just the right quality to meet my expectations. The eels were caught from the Po River and served with balsamic sauce –which, I think, was aged for 15 years- instead of the Japanese kabayaki sauce. I can say that the eel was one of the most pleasurable meals of the night. I also have this delicious meal at home from time to time.

 

The next dish consisted of only Parmesan cheese. The appearance of the dish was interesting. It had five types of Parmesan which were 24-month-aged Hombre Bio/Modena for the soufflé, 30-month-aged Caseificio Rosola/Zocca for the mousse, 36-month-aged Rosola for the cream, 40-month-aged Morello di Mezzo/Soliera for the wafers and finally 50-month-aged Parmesan for the foam.

 

Having been inspired by Ferran Adrian, this edgy and creative dish had a wonderful balance of taste and appearance.

 

Following that, we had risotto with black truffles from the Sensations menu. But it just lowered the overall impact that the meals left on our palates. Its taste unfortunately couldn’t meet my high expectation I had for the risotto.

 

By the way, you have to know that Bottura didn’t even show up until the risotto was served. As he didn’t visit the tables after a long time from the beginning of the night, he actually surprised us by his casual appearance and arrogant manners. When I was just about to express my opinions on the meals that I’d tasted until that time, he interrupted my words and said we would talk about it during the kitchen tour.

 

The next dish was pumpkin ravioli. It left an almost above-average impact on our palates.

 

For the following dish, we had to call the waiters, because although we were supposed to have beef tongue according to the menu, they still didn’t serve it.

 

After a long wait, the star of the night was on the stage: the beef tongue! Served with Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Southern American sauces, the dish deserved all the applause of the night.

 

The next dish was tagliatelle with ragu. The size of the pieces of the meat was close to the size of the pieces of cubed meat although a bit smaller. It was an appropriate choice instead of just using minced meat. Although it’s a bit weird to see such a simple dish being served in the third best restaurant of the world, the superior taste of the tagliatelle successfully satisfied our palates.

 

Following the taglietelle, one of the signature dishes of Bottura was served: foie gras crunch. The pieces of hazelnut, walnut and sugar were caramelized until they become crunchy and served with the famous balsamic sauce of Modena. Although it came with silverware, like most of the customers did, we ate it like ice cream too.

One side of the next dish was chicken and the other side was celery root, all served in a heavy “glace sauce”. It also another meal that didn’t leave an impressive aftertaste at all.

 

We ended the night with “a potato waiting to become a truffle”. It tasted like an éclair filled with potato puree.

 

I’d like to add that the wine pairing was rather successful for the whole night with all the locally-chosen coupage wines from Italy.

 

Although the dinner session takes longer at the other restaurants in this class, it took a bit shorter at Osteria Francescana.

 

When we headed to tour the kitchen in order to share our bitter-sweet thoughts about the meals with the chef, we learned that Bottura had left the building long time ago!

 

Nevertheless the chef Luca and his twin offered us a warm welcome in the kitchen. Accompanied by the genial staff, they showed us a good hospitality.

 

If I should write an overall review about the night;

 

I can honestly say that it was a frustration for these reasons: The lack of exciting flavors; omitted orders; the attitude displayed by Bottura when he shortly visited our table; although he was about to open another restaurant in Istanbul on May 27 and had Turkish customers in the restaurant that night, he didn’t even look concerned about it at all. To the contrary, his arrogant manners were almost telling us “I’ll already open a new restaurant in Turkey, you shouldn’t bother coming here at all”; the chef’s rude behavior of interrupting my words when I wanted to express my thoughts about the meals and put it off to the kitchen tour during which he was a no-show without even informing us although he promised to his customers to have a chat.

 

Despite the fact that I liked some of the meals, due to the manners of the chef, I wouldn’t say the restaurant deserves to be “the third best restaurant of the world” at all.

 

Judging from the present condition of the restaurant, Osteria Francescana deserves only 1 or 2 stars at best. Even though Steirereck (Vienna) and Vendôme (Bergish Gladbach) have been ranked lower in the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, all I know is that, for me, Osteria Francescana fell behind them. I just wish to see in my next visit to the restaurant that the night was just a bad dream.

 

Bon Appétit and enjoy the taste of life…

 

Osteria Francescana Restaurant

www.osteriafrancescana.it

Via Stella, 22, 41121 Modena, Italy

+39 059 210118