In the bucolic setting of Casa Maria Luigia, Massimo Bottura welcomes MINI guests who have come to discover #MINIMEETsTALENT, the project aimed at supporting, enhancing and rewarding young talents. The British automotive brand continues its commitment with enthusiasm in many different areas: music, cinema, motorsport and much more. A philosophy that he fully shares with the starred chef, already a partner since last November to support Food for Soul, the non-profit organization founded by the Modenese genius and his wife Lara Gilmore. Once again, MINI and Bottura find themselves sharing the same principles of sustainability, inclusion and enhancement of culture.

The formula for success

«Picasso used to say: what is the secret of success? 10% talent and 90% hard work. Through the obsession with work without getting lost in everyday life, talent becomes ever greater. Hard work is what makes the difference, ”he says Massimo Bottura, with the feet (in the inevitable Gucci sneakers) firmly planted on the ground.

He also knows it well Jessica Rosval, Canadian born in 1985, who for seven years has shared the kitchen with the chef, who has become the kitchen manager in the splendid guest house just outside Modena. She too supports the talent + hard work formula, but that's not enough and she says in her almost perfect Italian: "Talent is complicated because no one is born with a talent for anything, it's something you learn by putting yourself in the right situation, seeing inspiration. around you and choosing the right teachers like Massimo. And then it's important to have a team that rocks. Together we can do everything, that's how it is created .

And on this formula he more than agrees Stefano Ronzoni, MINI director since 2017: «The history of MINI is one of encounters with talented people. For this we have to do is follow our DNA and continue looking for talents. The project #MINIMEETsTALENT it allows us to meet young talents and continue to search for those affinities that are fundamental for us . This is why the partnership with Massimo Bottura is successful, based on common values, as well as with OffiCine for cinema, Meet Music for music and Promodrive for motorsport.

And that's right Stefano Gabellini of the historical partner Promodrive to tell about the new initiative MINI Challenge Academy, a training session reserved for Under 25 drivers participating in the MINI Challenge championship in the Mini Challenge Lite category. An exceptional tutor, the former Formula 1 driver Gianni Morbidelli, follows the drivers participating in the Academy throughout the 2020 season, every race weekend, with introductory lessons and specific training aimed at learning how to face the start, improving driving dynamics and optimizing tire management during to tie.

There will also be the presentation day Deitz, the winner of the 2020 edition of Mini Meets Music Contest, bound to MEET MUSIC, the Italian event that since 2017 has given producers, artists and professionals of the electronic music scene the opportunity to meet and work together. The prize? A training course in the prestigious MAT Academy, the production and publication on all digital stores of an unreleased track: not bad!

Talent served

And here the hard teamwork combined with talent is manifested in the beautiful brunch menu of Casa Maria Luigia, which Jessica Rosval she tells us full of enthusiasm and a pinch of emotion, under the watchful eyes of her mentor. Called Tòla Dòlza from the Modenese dialect to say "take it easy", iThe menu is entirely made using one of the oldest forms of cooking, the oven and wood, to create surprising flavors.

It begins with a small journey through flavor between Modena and Canada with appetizers: from fresh white Modena Ricotta passed in a wood-fired oven and sweetened simply with a little honey of our own production with pork belly with maple syrup, passing through the Noto almond sauce roasted in the oven, blended and smoked with cedar wood.

The Cod Mare Nostrum follows, told with poetry: «From the tradition of creamed cod, we imagine cod as a traveling fish, like us, and points to the team of cooks, «we too are travelers, we come from many different countries. This salty fish is found here, but dreams of being in southern Italy and is found with Vesuvius tomatoes, capers and olives .

Do not miss the iconic Botturian dish: Tortellini in Cream of Parmigiano Reggiano 36 months, twice as good being products of Tortellante, Bottura's inclusive project that brings together the elderly represented by the grandmothers rezdòre who they teach the art of fresh handmade pasta to young people with disabilities.

With the main course we take a trip to Argentina: the veal is baked, smoked, seasoned with green chimichurri sauce and garnished with rose petals, a beautiful contrast between the aggressiveness of strong cooking, the spices and the delicacy of the flowers. , which melts in your mouth.

To close, two fantastic desserts with evocative and fun names: From Modena to Mirandola and S’More. The first is an unexpected combination of cotechino, the typical sbrisolona and Marsala zabaione, so yellow and whipped that it looks like a cloud kissed by the sun. The cooking of the cotechino takes up the Modenese tradition: "My grandmother put it under the ashes, we went back there, we went back to put the cotechino back under the ashes to melt everything while maintaining the gelatinousness of the rind, but without fat", he explains Bottura.

Like a Proustian-inspired game, S'More comes from the childhood of Jessica Rosval spent in Canada, when as children we expected summer to go camping and gather around the fire to melt the marshmallows. Accompanied by two chocolate biscuits, the seared sugary cream is served on a sort of slightly sour cherry jam.

The "sweet" short movie

This last sweet moment is savored in the shade of the tall trees of the garden of Casa Maria Luigia to accompany the preview of the short film directed by the young Davide Morando entitled The photonic atomics, starring Giovanni Storti (the legendary mustachioed comedian of the trio Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo), Francesco Buttironi and Martina De Santis. Presented on September 16 during a special evening at the Anteo Palazzo del Cinema in Milan, it is visible on the official minisite MINI FILMLAB . Here we return to celebrate MINI's flair for talent, this time through the MINI MOVES CINEMA project and in particular with the initiative MINI FilmLab, dedicated to young filmmakers, developed with OffiCine (the Advanced Training Laboratory in the cinema of Anteo and IED) and which boasts the prestigious Artistic Supervision of director Silvio Soldini. With FilmLab, MINI has been proudly running a workshop for three years which, over a three-month training course, allows a group of young aspiring filmmakers to learn all the stages of making a film. The short films developed in recent years have proved to be an unexpected success, becoming acclaimed protagonists of the festivals dedicated to short movies.

Casa Maria Luigia is open from Tuesday afternoon until Sunday noon. The property is closed on Sunday and Monday night. Here for reservations.