Over the last two years, acclaimed Italian chef Massimo Bottura has been busy opening a handful of quasi-soup kitchens called “refettorios” around the world, all of which serve dishes made from food waste. The original soup kitchen, which was established at the Milan Expo in 2015, is the subject of a new feature-length documentary called Theater of Life. To get the ball rolling, Bottura invited some of his famous buddies, including René Redzepi, Alain Ducasse, Daniel Humm, and Ferran Adrià, to cook at the Milan kitchen for the local community.
After opening refettorios in Italy, London, and Rio, the Osteria Francescana chef is now setting his sights on America, with plans to open a kitchen in the Bronx in the not-too-distant future. On a recent episode of the Eater Upsell, Bottura outlined his vision for this project: “We are not interested in pop-ups. We are interested in seeds.... They’re going to grow, and they’re going to expand all over the world.”
Theater of Life had a limited theatrical run in Canada last year, but it’s now available to stream on Netflix. Check out the trailer above.
• Theater of Life [Official]
• Theater of Life [Netflix]
• Why Massimo Bottura's First U.S. Project Will Be a Soup Kitchen [E]
