‘Should I add some prosciutto?’ Fumbling around in his kitchen, Massimo Bottura, the chef behind the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, is making a snack.

We have just arrived at his home, a few kilometres from Modena’s medieval city centre. The motor of his white Maserati is still warm in the driveway. Around me, art is everywhere. Works by Ai Weiwei, Joseph Beuys, Cindy Sherman and Michelangelo Pistoletto are dotted all over the ground floor.