Pope Francis inspires Master Chef Massimo Bottura to feed homeless

Chiqui Guyjoco Saturday, August 20, 2016

Master Chef Massimo Bottura took inspiration from Pope Francis as he turns leftover ingredients from Rio Olympics 2016's caterers to feasts for the homeless in Rio de Janeiro.

The 53-year-old Italian restaurateur and world-renowned top chef opened the RefettoRio Gastromotiva, a gourmet soup kitchen that, for the past two weeks, served three-course meals to about 70 of the homeless men in Rio, host to this year's summer Olympics.

Osteria Francescana's chef-owner Massimo Bottura gestures as he talks during a ceremony, to celebrate his victory in the 'World's 50 Best Restaurants 2016', at Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy June 20, 2016. | Reuters/Tony Gentile

The owner of the Osteria Francescana in Modena recently proclaimed as the best restaurant in the world, used the more than 230 tons of food waste and surplus from the 60,000 meals prepared for the athletes, coach, and staff in the Olympic village.

Bottura considered this as "a cultural project, not a charity."

"We want to rebuild the dignity of the people," Bottura said, according to the Associated Press.

The master chef ventured in a similar project last year in Milan's Greco neighborhood when he revealed that Pope Francis, who famously uttered "Buon pranzo!" ("Good lunch!"), renewed Bottura's faith and moved him to take action.

"Introducing himself with those words reminds everyone to start each day with humility, and humility is the most important thing," Bottura told The New York Times then, "because from there others are going to follow you."

Pope Francis liked Bottura's idea of turning a run-down theater into Refettorio Ambrosiano, where the food waste from last summer's Expo Milano transformed into feasts for the refugees and working poor, and suggested not to have it in downtown Milan but to "give pride" to the "poorest quarter of Milan."

"Just sitting here, treated with respect on an equal footing, makes me think I have a chance," Vladimir Faria, one of the homeless fed in RefettoRio, told AP.

According to Independent, many across the world responded to Bottura's latest project in Rio to help and support, including Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and more than 60 internationally celebrated chefs, but not the athletes nor the International Olympic Committee nor Rio's Olympic Organising Committee.