This transcript is generated with the help of AI and is lightly edited for clarity.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
The only way for me to develop things is through my mental palette, no? But the dialogue with artificial intelligence is about putting kiwi close to oysters. You know? And it is not something familiar for me, but it’s something interesting to understand. One of the key points for me to evolve and create future—it’s about having doubt, not having “Oh, I know everything.” No, I don’t. I have doubt. So I walk into the kitchen with doubt, and I have to give answer to this doubt.
REID:
Hi, I’m Reid Hoffman.
ARIA:
And I’m Aria Finger.
REID:
We want to know what happens, if in the future, everything breaks humanity’s way. What we can possibly get right if we leverage technology like AI and our collective effort effectively.
ARIA:
We’re speaking with technologists, ambitious builders, and deep thinkers across many fields—AI, geopolitics, media, healthcare, education, and more.
REID:
These conversations showcase another kind of guest. Whether it’s Inflection’s Pi or OpenAI’s GPT-4 or other AI tools, each episode we use AI to enhance and advance our discussion.
ARIA:
In each episode, we seek out the brightest version of the future and learn what it’ll take to get there.
REID:
This is Possible.
REID:
Last September, I traveled to Italy to give the commencement speech at the Bologna Business School at the University of Bologna—the oldest university in the Western world. The energy that day was palpable; with students, their families, faculty, tourists, and locals gathered together in the Piazza Maggiore. The only other time that trip that I felt that level of sustained energy, joie de vivre, and excitement was from our guest today, Masimo Bottura.
ARIA:
Absolutely. For anyone who doesn’t know legendary restaurateur and chef Massimo Bottura, just watch the first episode of the first season of Chef’s Table. Massimo is known for taking traditional Italian dishes and turning them on their head.
REID:
That’s right. And what he’s done for food, for restaurants, for Italy—it’s an inspiration to anyone who wants to have ripple effects well beyond their organization or industry or even their lifetime. Massimo is part chef, part philosopher, part inventor, part philanthropist, part futurist. And he’s here to talk with us about the future of food, human creativity, and how technology factors in.
ARIA:
A restaurateur and entrepreneur for more than 30 years, Massimo Bottura is among the most innovative, influential personalities in the world’s gastronomic scene. In 1995, he opened his restaurant, Osteria Francescana, in Modena, Italy—his hometown. The restaurant’s numerous awards—three Michelin stars in 2012, and first place on the World’s 50 best restaurants list in 2016 and 2018—helped to cement the chef’s reputation globally.
REID:
So I am super delighted to be here with Massimo Bottura. Entrepreneurs and technologists might be kind of like, “huh, this amazing chef. Why are we, are we doing the show?” Massimo, how do you think about—can you describe yourself in terms of what you do? What is the, what is the symphony across different things?
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
I’m a chef, an entrepreneur, I am—but my mind, if I have to look deep into my mind, I think I am a renaissance man. You know, our small restaurants are a kind of renaissance atelier where we create culture, we develop knowledge, consciousness, sense of responsibility. This is what we are—who I am.
ARIA:
Massimo, one of the things we want to kick off with is we’ve all been playing around with an AI version of Reid so that Reid can replicate himself and do so much more. So we made a special video just for you. So just press play on that video and take a look.
REID AI:
Saluti Massimo, sono un tuo grande ammiratore! Nel tuo libro “Non fidarti mai di uno chef italiano magro,” dici “La tradizione non sta nel preservare le ceneri ma nel passare la fiamma.” Mentre guardiamo al futuro della cucina, come vedi i cuochi bilanciare la necessità di innovare pur onorando ancora il loro patrimonio culinario?
REID:
So, what did I say? [laugh]
ARIA:
I have no idea what you said.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
You know, you said exactly what I always say. You know, evolving, evolving tradition, it’s a very important exercise because it’s about looking at the past. Don’t forget about the past, but looking at the past—but in a critic way, not in a nostalgic one. Not the ashes, but the flame. And looking at the past in a critical way, you can split and get the best from the past into the future. What we, what I was talking yesterday night about “The crunchy part of the lasagna.” I don’t care about eating a big slice of lasagna. I care about eating emotions. So that’s how you evolve cuisine. How you recreate new tradition—evolve tradition—because otherwise they’re going to be dusty. And you don’t want that. You want the future, because in my mind, there’s always future. I’m born like that. So in my future, there will be always future, but future is not the place. Future is a state of mind. So is your mind that is driving you, guiding you into the future.
REID:
Yep.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
This is what we were talking about.
REID:
[Laugh] Yes.
ARIA:
So how was Reid’s Italian?
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
It was perfect. Amazing.
REID:
Well, it’s one of the things that we want to kind of show is that through technology, we can actually become more human. And so, for example, obviously I speak like no Italian, you know? “Ciao bene.” Like, almost no Italian. But like, through this, you can actually create more human connection. That’s one of the things I love about your work. I mean, as part of what we first learned at Casa Luigia, last night here in San Francisco at the Refettorio, is the food and the experience is part of the human connection. So how do you, how do you kind of think about like, what that creation is, and that interface point between the, the, the technology of, of what you’re inventing and that human connection?
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
I keep saying to my team, to every guest, they come from all over the world to Osteria Francescana that you don’t come to eat good food. You know, you come to eat emotions. Okay? So I am, I grew up in a very large family with you know, the culture of food deeply into our DNA. I keep saying that my muscles are made by Parmigiano Reggiano. And in my vein, there’s a lot of balsamic vinegar. [laugh]. Okay? I Drank too much Lambrusco, and so the bubbling, you know, they make me a little bit cuckoo [laugh]. But it’s okay. I love it. … But what I want is like—they all our amazing guests—they want to share joy and happiness with us. They walk into Osteria Francescana in Casa Maria Luigia, and they experience who I am. They experience—they eat the terroir.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
If you ask me what we are doing everyday, I would say I compress into edible bites my passion. Food art, music poetry sitting on centuries of history, because my cooking is deeply Italian. But filter, everything is filtered by a contemporary mind. If you’re not contemporary and you are nostalgic, everything you do is going to disappear. Because it’s like step by step from one passing to another. You know, it disappears. Think about technology, okay? I’m thinking now about technology and connecting—artificial intelligence, what, how it can help us. And there is an incredible company in Modena called Italpizza. They’re making pizza, okay? Making pizza. It’s a very complex exercise, especially for the yeast, for the dough, et cetera. But if you have a machine with a cold approach to everything you do: getting the perfect tomato with the perfect part of extra virgin olive oil, oregano, et cetera, you have, you know, the perfect mozzarella, the dough with the right temperature, the right things—
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
You can make a pizza that is the same in Modena or in Czech Republic, and it’s cooked at the same perfection temperature to get and replicate the perfect Neapolitan pizza. This is the way you can use technology. Then the chef can be and can focus on different things. So there’s no human mistakes in the everyday because the machines are taking off those mistakes. The product is perfectly set. And the chef is thinking about the new recipe, new things, and not get lost into correcting all the mistakes of the human being.
REID:
Well, and one of the things that then allows the chef to do is the “Oops! I dropped the lemon tart.” Pi, could you explain?
Pi:
Ah. “Oops, I dropped the lemon tart!”—a dish that’s not just delicious, but has a fascinating story behind it. It all started when the pastry chef Takahiko Kondo was plating a perfectly crafted lemon tart at Massimo Bottura’s world-renowned restaurant, Osteria Francescana. But then disaster struck. He accidentally dropped the tart. Instead of getting angry, Bottura saw beauty in the chaos and told Takahiko to carefully collect the fallen pieces. With some added flourishes, a new dish was born—one that celebrated imperfection and the unexpected. And thus “Oops! I dropped the lemon tart” was created, becoming a signature dish at Osteria Francescana, and a testament to turning a culinary disaster into a delicious work of art.
ARIA:
Because the AI is probably not going to do that.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
That’s exactly, that’s exactly what the chef has to do. Yes. You know, like, recreate, you know, and correct or correct or like, ride that kind of mistakes. Make the mistakes is a, is an imperfect way and approach, especially in a 3 Michelin-star restaurant, you know? No, our, it’s the best restaurant in the world. Yeah, of course, I’m breaking tartelette. But it’s a, you know, intellectual exercise. It’s something that in your everyday life full of poetry and obligation if the poetry disappear—because the obligation are completely canceled the poetry—you’re going to get lost into the everyday life. And you’ll never, ever could imagine to recreate, to create a broken lemon tart and serve a broken lemon tart in a 3 Michelin star, because you think in a different direction. But if everyone look at left and the imperfection, I look right, and I get the imperfection as an opportunity to create something new.
ARIA:
I mean, the thing that I love is when I think of fine dining, I think of like, oh, stay in your own line. Like, no joy, no smiling, do your own thing. And when you talk about emotions, I mean, you know, you said “The crunchy part of the lasagna.” “Oops! I dropped the lemon tart.” Like, there’s so much joy and so much innovation. And last night we were lucky enough to be at your Refettorio here in San Francisco. And when you think of a soup kitchen, you don’t usually think of joy, you don’t think of innovation. But we were at a fancy restaurant, it was so beautiful. People can come in. So, how do you think of the emotion of joy and innovation? Because you’re, you’re changing things on its head. This is not how 3 Michelin stars used to go in the past. And I love that new way of thinking.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
This is a perfect observation. We work about this, and we were reflecting about this since 10 years. And what we have understood—and I was saying yesterday, “everybody talks about the chef, but service is 50% of the result of the evening. Did you notice how great the service were? Always perfectly in time, very respectful, always smiling. This is the way.” In Osteria Francescana, as in all our restaurant, service is part of the all project—development project. And because service is communication. They have to know everything that is happening in the kitchen. And that’s why I want them in a creative process—involved in a creative process. Because they have to learn using the mental palette, how to mix things—getting the perfect mixture or the perfect smile. Understand the psychology of this customer or the other customer, what they need, you know, and what they don’t.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
But the most important thing is my food is getting is, is the 3 Michelin star and goes into into your—under your skin, you know? And because a good, a good meal is just a good meal. Next, good meal, you’re going to forget about my good meal. But if I can transfer emotion in my food it’s going to stay with you forever. That’s, that’s the difference. That’s the difference. And a team is a team. I keep saying to everyone, and I wrote a very nice message to all the guests that come to Osteria or to Cavallino or Al Gatto Verde: by myself, I’m Massimo Bottura. With my team, we are Osteria Francescana. It’s a teamwork. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand the essence of restaurant. Restaurant from the word “restaurer”—to restore. Restore the soul of the guests, they travel to come in your place. This is the essence of the restaurant.
REID:
So thinking about restoring souls, one of the things that I loved about the lunch we had you know, Casa Luigiaaaa was the blend from poetry, to artwork, to music into the food. So talk a little bit about how those kind of combinations, those, those inspirations, those ways of creating and thinking.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
It’s, when I say that I compress my passion into edible bites—passion or passion. And you know, I grew up in a family where my mom, she was listening to opera and she was teaching us how to listen the Adagio, you know? The Adagio is the most important one, because from the Adagio, you understand everything, you know. But if you can’t listen to the Adagio, you know, a very mild touch, you cannot listen to the old opera. My brother, they were crazy about this or that. And the older one was like the Beatles. The other was The Rolling Stones, and they were fighting, you know. The third one was into blues and country. I don’t know why. Don’t ask me why. But, you know, and from blues to jazz, the step is very short. So to me, I’m really into that kind of music.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
And and jazz, it’s all about, you know, emotion. Through passion, you transfer emotions, and at the end is all that. And Casa Maria Luigia is the sum of everything. What me and Lara we decide to do is like sharing, sharing in a place called Casa. Not pretentious, very humble. Casa, home. We want to treat everyone like home. Every single guest, they feel they can walk in, go in the music room, pick one of the 8,000 vinyls are there, and listen to these vinyls. As in my home. The kitchen is always open. As my mom always add, my mom, she always add a chair for the unexpected guests. Because in a large family like ours, of course, “oh, the friend of the friend of the friend of the girlfriend, the new friend is coming,” you know?The kitchen is there open with Parmigiano Reggiano and lambrusco. First of all, I’m going to snack, you know, not Parmigiano, not a cheese.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Usually I’m going to snack Modena and drink a little bit of the unique lambrusco that they’re made for us. So this is the way Casa is home, and we want to share this kind of experience. And in the experience, art is a big part because since we met in New York—me and Lara—I was like, extremely skeptic about you know, contemporary art. To me, art was over after Duchamp [laugh]. And you know, and she said, “Hmm, I’m not sure it is like that.” so just look at the things deeper, try to understand the message behind the scene, the message that the, the, the artist wants to share. And from there, we found a way to create something, to share a passion that keep us together and keep us, help us to evolve. And that’s how we, we start looking at the art in a totally different way. And we start, you know, surrounded ourselves, our kids with art.
ARIA:
We have two incredible books on the table, and I want to talk about both of them. So first, you’re holding up Reid’s book, Impromptu, that he wrote with GPT-4, but it is a special copy because at the end we have some customization just for you. So tell me about when you opened the book. You came to the end, you saw the pictures of you created by AI. Would love to hear how you felt about it.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
First of all, when we met in Modena, we started talking about the artificial intelligence and how we recreate. And now he was writing this book and the dialogue, and you know, a friend of his was coming in and we were like “but did you try this? Did you try that? I have a kitchen and I’m dialing with the kitchen.” I was like, “whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what’s going on? This is, these guys. They’re blowing my mind.” You know, I always, the only, the only way for me to develop things is through my mental palette. No, but the dialogue with artificial intelligence is about putting kiwi close to oysters, you know? And it is not something familiar for me, but it’s something interesting to understand, you know? One of the key point for me to evolve and create future, it’s about having doubt, not having something. “Oh, I know everything.” No, I don’t. I have doubt. So I walk into the kitchen with doubt, and I have to give answer to this doubt.
ARIA:
Massimo, we actually have one more AI surprise. So you were talking about the future. That’s what you’re building. You’re thinking about the future. So we actually asked Pi, which is a personal intelligence. It’s a, a chatbot created by Reid’s company, Inflection.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Hi Pi.
ARIA:
Exactly. And so we asked Pi, we said, “what do you think a restaurant could look like 50 years from now? And what is your vision of the future of of communal eating?” So I’m going to pull up—this is, and so we didn’t script this, we didn’t say anything. We just asked Pi what this would be.
Pi:
In 50 years, restaurants could be quite different from what we’re used to now. Imagine fully automated restaurants where robots and AI handle the entire process—from order taking to food preparation and delivery. Immersive dining experiences could become the norm with VR and AR technologies, transporting diners to exotic locations while they enjoy their meals. Personalized menus might become standard, with AI and data allowing restaurants to tailor dishes to individual preferences, dietary restrictions, and even current moods. 3D printed meals could become commonplace, creating customized dishes that are visually stunning, nutritious, and delicious. Despite all these technological advancements, some aspects of dining out might remain the same—like the importance of human interaction, and of course, delicious food.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
As I said before in the large scale places for, to control the quality, robots can really help because they’re cold. They’re, they know exactly what to do. They not make mistake like the human mistakes, okay? But a chef can manage the irrational. A robot not. So the moment in the, you know, in my restaurant in Japan, imagine 20 robots. It, it’s, it’s like a, a fake image. You know? You know, 20 robots, like 20 Japanese chefs in the kitchen. They’re like incredibly perfect on everything. Slice the fish, boneless cooking, and that they never make a mistake. But with the chef was managing that. People thought I was crazy when I pick an Neapolitan guy. And I match a Neapolitan guy with 20 Japanese, because the Neapolitan guy is incredibly constantly in the cloud …and thinking about crazy things. But he understand when I talk, exactly. I’m giving you an example because—and he can manage the irrational of things. And the Japanese, with the reaction, “oh!” You know, it’s a great reaction. Because they understand they have a chef that can really manage that kind of stuff.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Antonio is making this classic pasta and tomato. You think pasta and tomato, everybody can make it. No, no, totally wrong. You cannot make that kind of pasta and tomato. So Antonio is looking for the best tomatoes in Japan. There are seven tomatoes. They make, they make the perfect tomato together. You know, one is more ripe, one is like more acidic. One is extremely sweet, one is like bitter. Okay? And you put together the seven tomato, and it was serving the pasta and tomato in the middle of the tasting menu because, you know … rigatoni is exactly as his mom was doing, but with the best seven tomatoes from Japan.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
I went there, I taste the past and tomato. I said, Antonio, this is not pasta and tomato. This is a dessert. Because these tomatoes are so incredible. And this pasta is so incredible. That is not a pasta and tomato. This is a dessert. So if you add a little bit of, you know vegetal, so like in, but not to show anything. So you, you get into the rigatoni with a, a kind of extraction of basil and, you know, you finish everything with a little touch of spiciness, but not aggressive like south of Italy, but very round as Japanese style. This is going to be the perfect dessert. You know, Antonio, that is the, the Japanese, they’re looking at me like, “what the hell is he talking about? Serving pasta and tomato as a dessert.”
ARIA:
Sure.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Antonio is a Neapolitan guy, and immediately got my idea. And he put immediately pasta and tomato as the finishing taste for the tasting menu. Plate of the year. He got the price Plate of the Year. Pasta and tomato as a dessert, dessert of the year.
REID:
One of the things that was really amazing about the first meal, the community, the round table that I experienced with you was also that part of yours—your work, Lara’s work, the team’s work—is not just about us at the table, but about the next generation. About children. Tell us a little bit about that.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
That’s one of the, my biggest challenge and dream. I’m like I treat everyone that works for me and, and that work at the Refettorio as part of the family. That’s why we call Francescana family. We share ideas, dream. We share mistakes, trying to learn by our mistakes and, and communicate them. One very important things—culture. Culture is the future. The most important ingredients for a chef of the future, for the waiter of the future, for everyone, every human being is culture. If you have culture, you can build a better future. And I try to involve as many people as I can to learn, to learn how to shape his own future. Antonio Iacoviello in Tokyo, or Mattia in Los Angeles—they’re not someone. They are taking care of the Osteria Gucci in Tokyo and Los Angeles.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
But they are human being and is their responsibility to create something very special there. I’m behind there. I’m protecting them. I’m teaching them. I’m the guide—I’m guiding them, but it’s their responsibility. We have an exercise that is called, “Who are you?” in all our restaurant that we share with all the restaurant in the world. That is called “Who are you?” And you know what we do? All our restaurants are certified zero waste. Why? For one simple reason. Because we are entrepreneurs. And waste—we are, with waste, we are losing money. And so what we do? We use all the scraps from our preparation for the most amazing, with the most amazing ingredients in the world, to give the opportunity to all the chefs, the stagiaire, the apprentice. One day, you know each one of them to create something special to share with us. Staff meal.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Staff meal is so important, because staff meal creates family. And each one of them, they can prepare something that talks about who they are and where they come from. “I am Jose. I come from Ecuador. I’m practicing in Osteria Francescana. I’m using the suckling pig to explain to you who was my grandmother.” This is the future. This is how to learn not to waste food, but to use everything and to cook with love. Because cooking is really an act of love. And so what we want to do is that.
ARIA:
One of the things that I want to make sure that you talk about is Food for Soul. Obviously you have this enormous passion for food, for creativity, for music but also for giving back and figuring out how you can do this all differently. So tell us sort of the genesis and, and what Food for Soul has become.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Thanks for the question. Because Food for Soul probably is the most important project I ever did in my life. We ever did in my life. So it was 2014 and at the Universal Exposition in Milan, all the delegation of the governments, they were coming to Modena and they tried to involve me in many different ways. But they never asked me what I was thinking about—Feed the Planet. I was talking with Carlo Petrini from Slow Food Movement and he was telling, telling me about these incredible, shocking numbers. We were, we, we were 7.5 million people on Earth. And we were producing food for 12 billion people—860 million people that didn’t have anything to eat. And we were wasting 33% of what we were producing. More than that, you know, this is insane. But also more than that, there’s also that we use water, electricity, human capital, to produce the food.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
And then one-third of what we produce goes to waste, and we burn it and become one of the three most crazy causes of climate change. No, this is not possible. So I said to myself, “I’m going to make my own pavilion.” But not in the Universal Exposition, because at that time now, the mayor of Milan…was responsible for the Universal Exposition. And they said, “Come, come, come. We’re going to give you space.” No, because if you go into the Universal Exposition, you get lost into this big supermarket. So I finally found you know, a dialogue, open a dialogue with the Archbishop that you know, he invite me, and we had a very good talk. And I explained the project. In my mind, I had to rebuild Miracle in Milan…and created the Refettorio, like this soup kitchen under the train station.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
But he said, “come back in one week because I want to thank you for your energy, for your passion…” So Pope Francis, one week later said, “we don’t want you to bring this light into the center of the city, but we found a beautiful space and old abandoned theater in the periphery, in the most neglected neighborhood in Milan, quartiere Greco.” So what I did, what we did we start involving creator of beauty—artists, designer, architects, and chefs—to rebuild this old theater, abandoned theater full of dust and rusty things. And we create an amazing place full of beauty to share with all our guests. Who are our guests? The most vulnerable, fragile souls of the society. So what we start doing? We start involving all the chefs and use what we have, we knew better. The power of hospitality with a simple word, “buongiorno,” welcome, come in, we take care of you.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
And in around the table, and share a meal. A beautiful meal made with love—because cooking is an act of love—from surplus food. It’s wrong to say, waste, food waste. It’s surplus food because we produce food that we don’t use it. So I get that food and I transform into amazing meal for people in need. At this point, we start this this journey. And it was incredible, incredible—the reaction of the people, the delegation, everyone was coming. But we thought, you know, after the universal exposition—imagine every day we were unloading the truck and transform 150 kilos of black cod from Japan Pavilion, or like 80 incredible, Poulet de Bresse from the French Pavilion that otherwise would be wasted, into amazing meal for kids at lunchtime, or people in need at dinner time. Thanks to the most amazing chef in the world.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Unbelievable. So after that was like shocking because we were the inspiration for France and Italy to pass the law against food waste. You know, it was incredible big deal. And we start with this, but we thought after the Universal Exposition that, you know, the whole project was like, okay, is for our heritage for the city of Milan. But the mayor of Rio de Janeiro connect with us and a couple of other journalists and David Hertz, the founder of Gastromotiva, and he said, “we want the same project in Rio De Janeiro for the Olympics.” So our answer was, why not? And let’s do it. And we did it. And from there till now, now we have 12 plus one, 13 Refettorio, because the Lima one is under reconstruction. And we rescue more than 1000 kilos—no 10,000 kilos of food surplus transforming to millions of meal, involving 110,000 volunteer chef from all over the world. Our Refettorios are everywhere, from Sydney to Geneva, from Naples to San Francisco, New York Lima, Rio, Merida, Mexico, everywhere. So this is Food for Soul. And it’s a beautiful project that as, as focus, I call it “culture project,” because our focus is through beauty, using beauty to fight food waste and social isolation. And this is a very, very, very important project.
REID:
You and Lara published a book, Slow Food, Fast Cars.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Yes.
REID:
So what’s the, what’s the, what’s the hope in terms of the offering for how people to, to, to experience the book and to think about it? Should they, should they be having the crispy end of the lasagna while they’re reading it? [laugh]
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
No, no, no. First of all, the book, I said, “Lara, this book doesn’t need any picture.” Because when you read the story that you wrote, it’s just a, a book of short stories that they crack me up, you know? It’s, they’re so beautiful. And every emotion, every event, every magic moment or simple moment goes into her mind filter by everything she, she thinks, and go and, and become a short story. And I love it. And so this is a book about short stories. Then it’s about Casa, about Casa Maria Luigia. And Casa Maria Luigia is the perfect example of what it is, Emilia. Emilia and the countryside of Emilia-Romagna. This is a, is a very is a little story. You know, I was shooting promo with David Beckham. And we were shooting for Maserati, and at one point we had a stop.
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
We were sitting, lying on the bench. … At one point, there was like this oak that was like, you know, in the middle of the field, and … David, he looked at me and he said, “Massimo, I think this is paradise.” Because there was no one whisper, just, you know, little bird that was coming. And I said, “come on, David. You know, it’s the countryside, this Modena, you know?” I got lost into the everyday, you know, into my place—without losing the poetry of everything. And he said, “Are you kidding me? Look at the field, all gold. Look at the roses, like red on gold, look at the oak and no sound. Just us.” And we were like, I’m ready. I, I can think about everything because there’s no sound, the sound of silence, you know? I was like, wow, this is David Beckham. David can live everywhere. And he said, “I imagine paradise, the countryside of Emilia.” So this book is about that. It’s about poetry, it’s about things, it’s about connection.
REID:
Now let’s go to rapid-fire. Is there a movie, song, or book that fills you with optimism?
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence.
ARIA:
I love it. Alright, rapid-fire number two. Is there a question that you wish people asked you more often?
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
The politics. I would love to have more politics. They ask for help, for good ideas.
ARIA:
Alright. Massimo, can you leave us with a final thought on what you think is possible in the future if everything breaks humanity’s way? So if everything breaks our way, what is possible in the next 15 years? And, and what’s the first step to get there?
MASSIMO BOTTURA:
I think about my vision for the future and the people I have close to me and I’m listening. And I’m like I just want to spend time close with people I love and, and I can learn.Think about you know, companies, they’re like, they believe in the future. They believe in a sustainable world. They believe in social gesture. They believe in keeping the flame of creativity always on and not let them go. And this is what I want. This is what I’m trying to do because the time is very limited. And I’m going to try to use that time for, for my best and communicate to as many people as I can to have, to shape a better future, especially for the kids. For the new generation.
REID:
Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network. It’s hosted by Aria Finger and me, Reid Hoffman. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Katie Sanders, Edie Allard, Sara Schleede, Adrien Behn, and Paloma Moreno Jiménez. Jenny Kaplan is our executive producer and editor.
ARIA:
Special thanks to Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, Parth Patil, Ben Relles. And a big thanks to Lara Gilmore, Penelope Lisi, Chiara Gullone, Sean Mckenna, Pyramind Studios, and Little Monster Media Company.