We’re all Massimo Bottura

«I’ll call Renzi». In New York it’s more or less 11 pm, a night full of joy. It’s 5 am in Italy, it’s already Tuesday, almost dawn. Massimo Bottura’s mobile phone, however, doesn’t seem to work: «I have no service. Can you imagine? I win The 50Best, try to call the prime minister and I have no service». It happens. In the meantime, he has already spoken with the ambassador in Washington and there, in the bookshop of the Cipriani Wall Street turned into a pressroom, he was man marked by the new consul in New York Francesco Genuardi.

Six Italian chefs among the first 100 in the world (Bottura 1st; Enrico Crippa 17th; Massimiliano Alajmo 39th; Davide Scabin 46th; Niko Romito 84th and Bombana 86th) and only five restaurants as Bombana, 86th, is very Italian but his Bombana Otto e mezzo is in Honk Kong, in Asia, that is. One could say that the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, first launched in 2003 and for the first time with an Italian in the first place, is dedicated to the establishments, not the chefs.

Yet everyone then speaks of chefs, men and women at the top, who move from the solitude of leadership to the pleasure of the stage. So here we are now, recalling the night of Monday 14th, for the first time outside of London and Europe. The toy is popular and makes itself available. The organisers at The Restaurant magazine announce that in 2017 it will be the turn of Melbourne and Australia. In 2018 the event explicitly dedicated to South America, will be held in Columbia. It’s not official yet, we’ll see.

During the usual welcome cocktail, less lavish than on the banks of the Thames, the names of the four Italian sponsors stood out: Lavazza, Grana Padano, Ferrari and Acqua Panna – S.Pellegrino. Then everyone sat in the big room. A very simple mechanism. The 50th is announced and thus forth, up till the podium, with intervals with prizes and awards to which we’ll dedicate a separate article. When the Chefs Choice is announced, the silence becomes even more silent, if possible. It’s the only acknowledgement that is not assigned by the almost one thousand people in the global jury, but by the chefs, and is therefore chosen separately.

They say it rewards those who will not arrive first, not to add glory to glory. Joan Roca, already first in 2013 in front of Redzepi and Bottura and again in 2015 in front of Bottura and Redzepi wins. Forecasts say he’ll win this time too. Many remind us Italians that as a restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca in Gerona is more of a restaurant than Osteria Francescana in Modena. These are the most qualified names, to which one must add Redzepi - despite the works in Copenhagen and the pop-up in Sydney though Australia takes its toll on the budget - Peruvian Virgilio Martinez and Swiss Daniel Humm who found his America in New York and opened up for everyone after the ceremony.

Sixth (and first in France) Mauro Colagreco of Mirazur in Mentone. Minus one. Here’s the fifth: Redzepi and Noma. Then the fourth, the wood spoon that would make only a very young person, an outsider happy; something Bottura dreads because in the game of nations and continents Modena and Italy are tiny. Yet the fourth is again Virgilio with Central in Lima. Three are left, two from last year, Roca and Massimo, and Humm who was fifth and must be smiling when he hears «third Eleven Madison Park».

Here we are again, like last year, but will it go like then? The speaker, in order to announce the second place, must use vague words that fit both the Roca brothers and Bottura, so people won’t understand who won and who lost. Some heavy moments, then: «Second place… El Celler…». I explode with joy, a liberating cry: «Ha vinto Massimoooooo». Italians hug, the Roca brothers hug the chef from Modena and foreign friends hug us and congratulate us. We’re all Massimo.

On stage, the Italian chef can hardly control his emotions: «Our job is hard. They compare as to rock stars… they say we’re artists … In fact we’re craftsmen. When Joan [Roca] and I found ourselves like last year, I told myself “first or second, it would be equally nice. Yet being first is even nicer”. In Italy we have three totems: football, and we won at our debut in the European Cup. The Pope, and Francesco is a great man. And food. And this success is for everyone, as food often brings nostalgia while it should also bring dreams. A great man from Modena once said “dream and you’ll see your dream come true”. His name was Enzo Ferrari. However, I would have closed at the end of 2001. Nobody understood my dishes. Then Enzo Vizzari reviewed me for l’Espresso and it was like sunshine. In 2002 the first star arrived and now here I am in New York, enough to be proud to be Italian. I’m not alone. From Ciccio Sultano in Sicily to Norbert Niederkofler in the Alps, the food is heavenly everywhere».

Then came a crazy party at Eleven Madison Park. I’ve never seen Alain Ducasse, arriving from Paris, dance on a table with Daniel Humm and Bottura and take a shower of champagne.