In 1986 Massimo departed on his life’s journey with the renovation of a roadside trattoria on the outskirts of Modena. At Trattoria del Campazzo he worked alongside the rezdora Lidia Cristoni and apprenticed himself to chef Georges Coigny to build his culinary foundation, a combination of regional Italian cooking and classical French training. In 1994 Bottura gained valuable experience working with Alain Ducasse at Louis XV in Montecarlo. During this time Massimo learnt about the value of quality products from the Mediterranean and reinventing classic recipes by lightening them up.

A year later in 1995 Bottura opened 3 star michelin restaurant, Osteria Francescana, juxtaposing tradition and innovation with contemporary art and design in Modena’s medieval city centre. During the summer of 2000 at El Bulli, Ferran Adrià encouraged Bottura to continue pushing the envelope. With Adria, Massimo's whole vision of contemporary cuisine was cracked open. Adria's deconstructions taught Massimo that he could bring conceptual premises into the kitchen. This is the greatest lesson he learned from Adria - to keep possibilities open and to widen one's concept of 'cooking'. Today he is considered the Top 5 Chef of the world after becoming the Top Chef of Italy in 2011.