What are you doing up there Massimo?
Discover why the Phaidon author and world’s greatest chef began this year with a high-altitude dinner over Mexico
The Italian chef and Phaidon author Massimo Bottura was a bit of a high flier in 2016. Back in June his restaurant Osteria Francescana topped the World’s 50 Best list; later that month he met with the-then Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who dubbed Bottura “a latter-day Renaissance Master”; in July he buddied up with Robert De Niro to bring his philanthropic food organization Refettorio Ambrosiano to New York; and in August he mingled with some of the world’s greatest athletes at the Rio Olympics.
So, perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us to find him opening 2017 in an equally lofty manner, 150-feet (45 metres) above the ground. A couple of days ago the chef hosted two Dinner in the Sky events in Teotihuacán, just outside Mexico city.
The event, which began in Belgium in 2006 and first arrived in Mexico in 2013, treats diners to an altitudinous evening of fine food prepared by guest chefs, and equally impressive views, via a crane-lifted dinner table.
88 guests enjoyed such Bottura classics as The crunchy part of the lasagne, and Oops! I dropped the lemon tart, or as they call it in the skies over Teotihuacán “Oops! Me nos cayó la tarta de limón.” Let’s hope Massimo and co., didn’t drop any of these ones for real, as they’d probably reach terminal velocity before they hit the ground.
