Sotheby’s to host Massimo Bottura pop-up

Auction house Sotheby’s is to host a pop-up version of Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana, ranked the third best restaurant in the world, in London this month.

Bottura will man the stoves at the pop-up version of his three Michelin-starred restaurant in Modena, northern Italy, for three nights between 27-29 June.

Open from 7:30pm each night, Bottura will serve a seven-course tasting menu priced at £250 per head, with wine pairings costing an additional £95 per head.

Dishes on offer include the Damien Hirst-inspired “Beautiful Psychedelic Spin-painted veal, not flame grilled” – a beef fillet marinated in milk served with tri-colour sauces drizzled like the artist’s spin-paintings.

The sixth course, “Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart” pays homage to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s radical 1995 work Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. The final course, “Camouflage: Hare in the Woods” is inspired by Pablo Picasso.

Housed within the art galleries of the auction house, the restaurant will be hung with contemporary artworks by artists who have inspired and influenced Bottura, including Gerhard Richter, Wolfgang Tillmans and Olafur Eliasson.

Osteria Francescana is currently ranked third place in the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards.

The 2015 awards take place tonight, which could see the restaurant rise to second or first place, or alternatively slip down the pecking order.

Since the 11-table, 28-seater restaurant opened Emilia-Romagna in 1995, Osteria Francescana won its first star in 2002, second in 2006, and third in 2011.

Bottura, who trained under both Alain Ducasse and Ferran Adrià, looks like an amalgam of the two, with Ducasse’s playful smile and Adrià’s darting eyes.

Deconstruction is a recurring theme in his progressive cuisine that aims to shake up conventions and stick a pin in the balloon we call the past.

Revisiting and reinventing the flavours of his childhood in a Heston-like manner, Bottura’s creations are inspired by music, art, film and literature.

One of his signature dishes is “Five Ages, Textures and Temperatures of Parmigiano Reggiano”, an ethereal composition of Parmesan sauce, mousse, foam, crisp and air aged between 18-50 months.