Massimo BotturaBirth Chart

Massimo Bottura (Modena, September 30, 1962) is an Italian chef. In 2019, he appeared on Time's list of the 100 most influential people of the year.

He is the owner of Osteria Francescana, a three-Michelin-star restaurant based in Modena, Italy, which was ranked No. 1 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2018.

In 2016, Chef Massimo Bottura and his wife Lara Gilmore founded Food for Soul, a non-profit organization conceived to build culture as a way to empower communities and advocate for healthy and equitable food systems.

The first seed was planted during Expo 2015 in Milan, when Bottura, in partnership with the Italian NGO Caritas Ambrosiana, decided to address in a new way the twin issues of food waste and social vulnerability. Bottura's concept was to reinterpret the church refectory, where monks used to gather around long communal tables for their meals, and transform it into a welcoming dining hall where the city's most vulnerable people could find a moment of restoration. Every day, guests were served a three-course menu prepared with unused products from the Expo pavilions that would otherwise have been discarded. The first Refettorio was born.

To date, Food for Soul has successfully launched seven Refettorios in Milan, Rio de Janeiro, London, Paris, Modena, Bologna and Naples.