At The Chef's Table: Massimo Bottura Part 2

In our series "At the Chef's Table," we take a look at the careers of some of the greatest chefs in the business. In this month's installment we are profiling Massimo Bottura, the Modena, Italy-based chef whose restaurant Osteria Francescana has gained international acclaim — including the title of fifth best restaurant in the world on San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants list. On top of that, The Daily Meal named Bottura its International Chef of the Year for 2012. We sat down with the chef in New York at Eataly's Birreria.

In part two of our series we discuss opening his first restaurant. He says the idea came from his family, who felt he was not going down the right path. "The idea was that my brother... He started pushing me because he saw me very unhappy and I was fighting every day with my father and at one point he said 'Why do you have to go like that? Just change, follow one of your passions'... And so there was a chance to buy this little trattoria for nothing.... So I said OK, Dad, I'm not coming anymore, I'm going to stop studying as a lawyer because I won't be a great lawyer so I did it. And just like that, one week later I was in the back of Trattoria de Campazzo cooking."

For more from Bottura, including who his early mentors were, watch the video above! You can also catch part one if you missed it and make sure to look out for part three coming next Monday!