The fashion luxury brand Gucci opened in 2018 a restaurant in Florence. It is called Gucci Osteria and it is located in the central Piazza della Signoria. The location is surely one of the bests of the city because it is inside Palazzo della Mercanzia, built in the XV century. To delight the most demanding palates the chef Massimo Bottura takes care of. He is a 3 Michelin stars chef and his restaurant in Modena was named as the best in the world. The menu is various and really particular. Each recipe represents the meeting between tradition and innovation.
The ground floor of Palazzo della Mercanzia, between Palazzo Gondi and Palazzo Vecchio, is a prestigious welcome for the guests. The interesting aspect of Gucci Osteria is the presence in the building of the museum and of the boutique. It’s a full immersion in the Italian fashion. Plus there is the Maison archive, but this is not public. The Florence brand has chosen the best Italian cook of the moment from the Osteria Francescana of Modena. These elements indicate a very high level of the restaurant.
Gucci Osteria: the chef and its staff
Massimo Bottura is the number one of the world ranking filled by San Pellegrino 50 Best of 2017. In 2018 he got the second place. He manages this restaurant like the one in Modena, also thanks to a professional staff selected by him. Among the cooks who are helping him, there is Ana Karime Lopez Kondo. She is a young chef of Colombian origins. Her previous experience was in the restaurant Central in Lima, one of the bests of South America. She is married to Taka Kondo, sous chef of Bottura. Gucci Osteria is now her new kingdom because she is managing the kitchen for Bottura.
Gucci and Bottura met each other thanks to Marco Bizzarri, the manager of Gucci. He is one of the 20 most influential managers in the world. They were schoolmates and since 2017 they work together for Gucci Osteria creation. Fashion and food made in Italy are surely a great combination for success. If you are going to Florence you should reserve a table, just do it in advance, because it’s not so easy to find a free table. Famous and good restaurants in Italy are always fully booked.
The menu of Gucci Osteria
The selection of dishes is quite big and it changes often, according to the season. And according to the creativity of the chef. The cost is not high, it’s well proportioned to the quality offered. You can choose among recipes proposed between 10 and 30 euro. About the food is really good and it includes typical local recipes like Chianina meat. Innovation is paired with contamination. You can easily find some South American influence and proposals. In the menu there is a lot of meat, but also fish is well represented.
In particular, in Gucci Osteria work on a mixture of ingredients. They get inspiration from Mexican, Japanese, and Italian recipes. You can find tortillas, ravioli, and Taka Buns. It’s like an experiment, but the results are really a success. This restaurant, using a French expression, can be defined as an “n-ni”. It isn’t a gourmet and neither a Bistrot, but guests can taste high-quality food, to have pleasure and fun, as the cooks said. They promised a love story between the restaurant and the tourists in Florence. To be tried.
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