Massimo Bottura, the chef/proprietor of three Michelin star Italian restaurant Osteria Francescana, is the latest culinary heavyweight to team up with MasterClass, the online education startup where celebrities teach all the courses. In the trailer for his his new class, Bottura explains that he wants to “teach you the way to evolve classic recipes from traditional Italian cuisine and bring them into the future.”
Bottura’s flagship restaurant in Modena, Italy currently sits at number one on the World’s 50 Best list (although it will be moved off the list when the new rankings are released next week). While the famed Italian chef has appeared in a number of documentaries and TV shows — he was the first star of Chef’s Table and made notable cameos on Master of None and Somebody Feed Phil — Bottura has never worked on an instructional cooking series like this before.
Bottura is one of several famous chefs who have joined the online education portal, where six-hour courses cost $99 a pop and an “all access” pass to every class costs $180 for one year. Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, and Thomas Keller were the first chefs to partner with MasterClass, and Dominique Ansel, Aaron Franklin, and Alice Waters also recently filmed courses focusing on their own culinary specialties. (Bottura’s MasterClass course includes 12 recipe demonstrations for dishes like tortellini, vegetarian brodo, pumpkin risotto, tagliatelle with ragu, pannetone soufflé, and his signature “Emilia burger.”)
Since launching four years ago, MasterClass has not been the subject of many formal reviews from print or online publications, which is a bit strange considering the price of admission and the big names involved. But the Dominique Ansel course won a James Beard Award this year, and the Verge and the Goods have both reported generally positive feedback from the MasterClass experience, which offers a wide range of courses: Subscribers can also learn about magic from Pen & Teller, filmmaking from Spike Lee, creative writing from Margaret Atwood, or tennis from Serena Williams. “I made Gordon Ramsay’s scrambled eggs,” David S. Rudin noted in his story for the Goods. “They were good, even without the suggested white truffle shavings that cost more than the class itself.”
• MasterClass [Official]
• The idea that successful people can teach their secrets isn’t new. Now MasterClass is selling it for $180. [The Goods/Vox]
• Who is MasterClass for? Talking to the people who take online classes with big-name celebs [The Verge]
