Food for All

Massimo Bottura opened a restaurant in Italy 27 years ago. It has been named the best in the world, twice. Today, Bottura leads a culinary × culinary GOODBOY PICTURE COMPANY/GETTY IMAGES related to cooking (adjective) Jenny loves cooking, so she decided to go to culinary school. empire. It extends from Dubai, in the Middle East, to Beverly Hills, California.

But of all the things he’s done, Bottura says his greatest achievement is Refettorio Ambrosiano. It’s also in Italy. Twelve global spin-offs have followed.

SOMETHING SWEET This dessert is made with cream that might otherwise have gone to waste.

At Refettorio Ambrosiano, the menu changes daily. It depends on what comes with the morning delivery. One day, the delivery contains chicken close to its sell-by date. There are oranges too ugly for the grocery store. By dinner, these supermarket castoffs have been transformed. About 100 people enjoy the meal. They include refugees, the homeless, and the unemployed. For an hour, they can forget about life’s challenges.

READY TO SERVE The dining room at Refettorio Ambrosiano will soon be filled. Meals are free of charge for people in need.

Bottura’s Refettorios are not restaurants. They are soup kitchens. Not that Bottura would call them that. He thinks of them as places that shine a light on the dignity of their guests while focusing attention on the food-waste problem.

Creating a Movement

TOP CHEF Massimo Bottura is dedicated to fighting food waste. His motto is “No more excuses.”

Bottura came up with the idea of Refettorio Ambrosiano in 2015. Organizers of the World Expo, in Italy, had invited him to cook for its grand opening. Bottura said he wanted to do something different. He wanted to cook for the homeless, using surplus food. Pope Francis heard about this. He helped arrange the use of a theater in a run-down neighborhood. Bottura turned it into a dining room for people in need.

Today, his Refettorios are “a movement,” Bottura says. “We treat our guests like we do at our restaurants. That’s the warm hug we are giving. We are saying, ‘Welcome, this is a beautiful place, and it’s your place. This is the food that we cook for you. We are here for you.’”

Making a Difference

At a refettorio, a chef must make whole meals out of surplus. And at Bottura’s restaurants, the cooks squeeze maximum use out of every ingredient, including vegetable peelings and stale bread.

IN THE KITCHEN Bottura encourages chefs to get maximum use out of every ingredient.

Turning basic ingredients into gastronomic × gastronomic BURAK KUCUKSU/500PX—GETTY IMAGES having to do with cooking and eating good food (adjective) The restaurant offers a choice of gatronomic delights. gold is Bottura’s magic. He says his grandmother taught him how. “What you think is food waste is just an opportunity to create something amazing,” he says.

Chefs at Bottura’s restaurants learn his approach to cooking, but they also learn about his commitment to making a difference in people’s lives. “Everybody has the ability to contribute to positive change. It starts with all of us, in our own kitchens,” Bottura says.

The Food-Waste Problem

“We are 8 billion people on Earth. We produce enough food for 12 billion people,” chef Massimo Bottura says. “Yet 820 million people don’t have enough to eat.”

Every year, more than a billion tons of food ends up wasted. And food waste is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse emissions.

Project Drawdown is a nonprofit group focused on climate change. It says reducing food waste could have a greater impact than switching to electric cars.