Just after celebrating Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura's first star by the prestigious Michelin Guide 2020, here is the launch of a new digital project coming like a flash. It's Max Siedentopf's original interpretation of five key menu dishes created by talented chef Karime López at the Florentine restaurant.
Following the singular spirit of Gucci's creative director, Alessandro Michele, who draws fantastic stories through the fabulous collections of clothing and accessories, the 28-year-old artist explores with unique genius the five dishes, which have been on the menu since the restaurant opened two years ago.
Emilia Burger (ph Max Siedentopf)
The food-themed iconographic project stands on steady storytelling where the dish is not the only protagonist of the series of images and videos shot by the artist, photographer, and director Max Siedentopf, recently nominated for Best New Director at the UK Music Video Awards 2019.
Highlights are on the inspiration, the ingredients, and the creator of the dish itself. Seen through Siedentopf's eclectic lens, the dishes come to life and take on eccentric personalities as if they themselves are characters to be found alongside the guests inside the dining rooms of the Gucci Osteria.
Emilia Burger (ph Max Siedentopf)
The first protagonist is the Emilia Burger, the creation of star chef Massimo Bottura passed to Karime López to adapt it to the menu of Gucci Osteria. An icon of American food, here the hamburger is an ode to Emilia Romagna, Bottura's home region. The patty is made from Chianina meat and cotechino sausage, and then layered with Parmagiano Reggiano, salsa verde—translated as green sauce—and made with parsley, anchovies and capers, and mayonnaise laced with sweet, thick balsamic vinegar. All the flavors mixing in an umami harmony.
Emilia Burger (ph Max Siedentopf)
What does a Michelin star chef's burger taste like? “You feel the perfect flavor on the palate,” according to Massimo Bottura, who dreamt up the Emilia Burger originally as a collaboration with American chain Shake Shack for the New York City Marathon several years ago.
In Siedentopf's images and videos the Emilia Burger and its pink box becomes part of an eating ceremony complete with exaggerated sound effects, an accessory posing on a model's head, and a tourist gazing on the marble statue of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati in Florence's Piazza delle Signoria, where the Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura is located.
Emilia Burger (ph Max Siedentopf)
The original interpretations of the other four unmissable dishes signed Gucci Osteria by Massimo Bottura will follow with exquisitely exaggerated clamor:
Tortellini, with Marta Fraccaroli who handmakes the pasta fresh daily for the restaurant while listening to rock music;
Taka Bun, featuring the bun's namesake Takahiko Kondo, Karime López's husband and sous-chef of Osteria Francescana;
Franco's Salad, starring Franco Lodini, the forager who supplies the Gucci Osteria with local salad leaves and herbs growing wild in Tuscan countryside;
Purple Corn Tostada, last but not least, a dish created by Karime López in a nod to her home country Mexico.