Gucci Opens Restaurant With a Michelin-Starred Chef
Not content with just creating haute couture, Italian fashion label Gucci has opened its first haute restaurant, with a very notable chef in the kitchen.
Green walled and seating a select 50, Gucci Osteria is the newest addition to the Gucci Garden, a multi-level galleria in the heart of Florence, Italy celebrating all things Gucci.
Top chef Massimo Bottura has been – temporarily – lured away from his three-Michelin-starred Osteria Francescana in Modena, which was named Best Restaurant of the Year in 2016 and is working as a collaborator on the project.
Famous for his inventive and tradition-twisting dishes, Bottura’s creations – which include his take on Parmigiano Reggiano tortellini and mushroom risotto, as well as more foreign-inspired offerings such as pork belly buns and Peruvian tostadas – aim to bring the fashion label’s lust for elegant excess to the plates of stylish (and hungry) visitors.
Located on the ground floor of the fourteenth-century Palazzo della Mercanzia (other floors boast the label’s clothing and accessories, curated exhibits, a cinema room, bookshop and café), the restaurant is fitted with custom interiors that emulate Gucci’s ostentatious style: shamrock-green walls, teal-tinged Chesterfield booth seats and olive-branch-printed carpet.
With dishes starting from a reasonable €20 (about $30), a meal is likely to be the most wallet-friendly purchase at the former museum – aside from the 8€ (about $12) entry fee that gives visitors access to the top two levels for a browse of Gucci’s fashionable history.
We do have one question, however: how are they planning to dress the salad?
