Massimo Bottura’s 11 Favorite Restaurants in Italy

From the truffle-laden north to the anchovy-steeped south, Italy is a paradise for food lovers. And Massimo Bottura, the country’s leading culinary talent and the owner of the Michelin three-star Osteria Francescana in Modena, may know it better than anyone. When Robb Report asked him to name his top 10 restaurants in Italy, he delivered a gourmand’s guide to the country and its regional cuisines, from a new pizzeria in Sicily (opened in July by another Michelin-decorated chef) to a 15-seat farmhouse restaurant in the far north, where one of Italy’s rising stars is making a name for herself. All of Bottura’s choices are hands-on projects of talented chefs, many of whom grew up in the regions where they work and understand the cooking from a personal perspective as well as a professional one. Just be prepared to travel off the beaten path. “The best Italian restaurants are often the ones that are the hardest to get to,” says Bottura, who, faced with such a bounty, could not resist making his personal top-10 list a top 11.