What it Takes to Achieve Creative Success According to 3-Michelin-Star Chef Massimo Bottura
As a writer and digital entrepreneur, I’m starting to realize that success in any creative field is part art, part science. The art part requires you to bring forth your personality, enthusiasm, and authenticity. The science part requires you to study the process, learn from the best, hone your skills, and strategize.
Italian restaurateur Massimo Bottura is a creative genius who does exactly that. He’s an artist in his approach, but he’s a scientist in his methods. He describes his restaurant as “a laboratory of ideas inspired by culture” where no dish is created before first being immersed in a process of innovative art, passion, culture, and experimental creativity.
Massimo is the owner and chef of Osteria Francescana, which first opened in 1995 in the small Italian city of Modena. It is there where he brought his vision of combining culinary tradition and culture with modern art and design, to life.
Fast forward to today, Osteria Francescana is a 3-Michelin-starred restaurant that has been listed in the Top 5 restaurants at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards since 2010. In 2016 and 2018, it ranked #1.
Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote that we must “learn how to see; realize that everything connects to everything else.” As writers, storytellers, and creative entrepreneurs, we must learn how to see beyond our own domains so we can expand the way we think. Yes, cooking is different, but there is much we can learn from a chef who has transformed traditional cuisine into an experiential form of modern art.
So if you’re a creative professional, an ambitious person, someone with a deep emotional urge to use their personal artistic vision to create work that matters in this world, then here’s what Massimo Bottura’s innovative thinking and culinary philosophies can teach you about the world of creative success.
Always Make Space For “Poetic Mistakes”
In an interview with Business Insider, Massimo tells the story of how one of his most iconic dishes, Oops! I Dropped The Lemon Tart, came to be.
One evening at Osteria Francescana, sous chef Kondo Takahiko was preparing the sweet-and-savory lemon tart. He was about to serve two dishes to the last two remaining customers when he accidentally dropped one of the tarts. Kondo bent down to scoop up the mess when Bottura stopped him and screamed: “No, it’s so beautiful! Don’t you see?”
Bottura fathered the vision to search for hidden beauty in mistakes or broken things—a practice his sous chef lacked—so together, after the accident, they created a new tart and presented it exactly like the broken one. That’s how Oops! I Dropped The Lemon Tart became one of Massimo’s most iconic dishes, one that was created from this unintentional mistake.
Oops! I Dropped The Lemon Tart Dish (Source)
In a way, his philosophy reflects that of the Japanese Wabi-Sabi, which stands for finding beauty in broken or imperfect things. In the art practice of Kintsugi, you mend broken objects with gold filling to give them golden scars. Massimo did something similar when he transformed a spilled tart into a work of art.
But how was he able to see the potential in mistakes when others didn’t?
It falls back on a mindset that allows him to live with “a free space for poetry, free from obligation,” which then gifts him with the freedom to make mistakes and further explore them:
“If you don’t realize that in your life, the most important thing is to live a free space for poetry, you don’t realize the value of your life. You have to live a free space from obligation. With poetry, you can imagine some mistakes and understand that [making] mistakes is human, and in a certain way, it’s beautiful.”
Through his words, Massimo Bottura reminds us that if we can learn how to free ourselves from our own critical voice of judgment, we will find the freedom to expand our space for creation. We will start playing. We will start exploring our curiosity. We will try new ways of doing things — maybe even break things. And we will most definitely reconnect with that fearless poetic energy of life.
It’s that very “poetry” that will open your eyes to the beauty in the things that others can’t even imagine to be beautiful. And that’s the secret to making the invisible, visible — to seeing the poetic potential in your mistakes.
“I think that’s the poetry of everyday life. You have to be ready to see things that others don’t even imagine. Make visible the invisible.”
— Massimo Bottura
Lesson #1: If you want to create unique masterpieces, you must make space for poetic mistakes. Be ready to experiment and fail if you have to. And try to look deeper into broken things, perhaps there’s something beautiful there that others can’t see.
Never Lose Sight of Who You Are
One of the most influential aspects of Massimo’s creativity is in his continued commitment to his own heritage. He allows his mind to travel and wander into the unknown, and seek creative inspiration from modern art, but he always reverts back to his nostalgic Italian roots to try and connect the old with the new.
As he explains in his philosophy below, he repeatedly comes back to the question of “who am I?”
“At Osteria Francescana, we always ask people: who are you? Then we ask them to show it through their work. I tell my cooks: tell me who you are in edible bites. I tell young chefs to always have their feet on the ground… to travel with their eyes and ears open and absorb everything, but never forget who they are or where they come from.”
Authenticity is what makes you unique. Your story, your voice, and how you express it to the world — there’s no one else that can emulate you. Your authenticity, then, should be the springboard for the inception of new ideas.
When you write, tell me who you are in bits of your stories. When you cook, tell me who you are in edible bites. Create art that portrays the flavors of your identity and passions. Stay true to who you are and let your story unfold as you see it, not as you want others to see it.
In short, authenticity is how you escape competition. So let your personality shine because personality triggers emotion, and emotion is the only way we genuinely connect with others — people might forget what you say, but no one ever forgets how you made them feel.
“Live in the moment, explore and go in deep, without forgetting the past and where you come from. I travel all over the world with my palette, but in the end, I’m from Modena.”
— Massimo Bottura
Lesson #2: In your creative pursuits, if you find yourself lost or deviating too far from your natural voice, trim your sails, and slow down. Come back to the question of “Who am I?” Allow yourself the freedom to explore, but carry a piece of who you are with you everywhere you go.
Be Obsessed With What You Do
Obsession is defined as “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.” Massimo Bottura was obsessed with finding a unique way to combine culinary tradition and culture with modern art and design like no one could ever imagine.
His obsession drove him to number one.
That’s why he says:
“Success in life is about obsession.”
His advice to creatives is similar to that of Mark Cuban’s: “Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.”
The idea is simple: Be so in love with what you’re doing that failing is not a viable outcome. Whether it takes you 5 or 20 years to reach success and recognition in your field of creation — you must give yourself no other option but to persevere and do so. That’s how badly you should be obsessed and in love with the art that you create.
Lesson #3: If you want to achieve creative success, you have to be obsessed with your art of choice. You’ve got to stick with it for the decade, through the highs and the lows, which means that you’ve got to stop looking for quick “hacks,” and instead, just sit down and do the best work you can — be obsessed.
Be Willing to Share and Learn
When asked about the transformation of the industry over the past decade, Bottura explained how “things have changed over the last ten years in gastronomy — chefs don’t close their kitchens to other chefs anymore. It’s about sharing. We travel all over the world and share techniques, experiences, and ideas with one another.”
The same applies to any creative domain today.
The digital and social worlds have made it easier to build communities and collaborate, but for you to chime in the fun, you must first open the doors to your kitchen. You must put yourself out there. You must look up to those you aspire to emulate, study their work, learn their strategies, and tailor them to your processes. And while you’re at it, you must share your own progress so that others can learn from you.
Lesson #4: As you work on mastering your craft, share your techniques, experiences, and ideas with one another. It’ll help others learn from you just as much as it’ll help you learn from others. Collaboration and community are key to personal and professional success.
Grow Slowly Like a Tree
Good things take time and hard work, never forget that. As Bottura mentions in an interview, “never forget that talent is only 10 percent, the remaining 90 percent is all hard work.” And when asked about his advice for chefs just starting out, he said: “Be like a tree, grow slowly.”
Grow slowly like a tree.
Give yourself the time to discover who you are and dig deeper into your culture and heritage. Explore your curiosity, passions, and interests, and always keep a small window open for poetry, because creative inspiration can arise from anything you experience—a book, a movie, a music track, a painting, a walk in the park, or on a stroll by the sea.
Lesson #5: It took Massimo over 20 years of exploration and practice to reach his heights. So stop rushing into oblivion—grow slowly instead. The further you spread and expand your roots, the larger the pool of ideas you’ll have at your disposal to forge new creative connections.
Act Like an Artist, Think Like a Scientist
As mentioned earlier, creative success is part art, part science. The art part requires you to bring the unique story of who you are into everything you do. The science part requires you to learn and study so you can grow.
You are an artist when you bring the entirety of who you are — your passions, emotions, culture, and identity — into your work. You are a scientist when you allow yourself the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them while also sharing your work in public. And you are both, the artist and the scientist when you become obsessed with what you do, but also allow yourself the time to bloom and grow into the creative genius that you can become.
Now, as Massimo loves to say, go “make visible the invisible.”
Go create!