AC Media

For years, Italian diners would leave his restaurant and throw his food in the trash on the way out.

It's now been named the best restaurant in the world — twice.

Massimo Bottura grew up in Modena, Italy — the home of balsamic vinegar. In 1995 he opened a twelve-table restaurant on a quiet street. He called it Osteria Francescana. His goal was to honor Italian tradition by reinventing it. Italy did not agree.

For nearly a decade, the restaurant barely survived. Italian critics refused to write about him. Diners walked in, took one bite, and left in disgust. Some threw his modernist pasta in the trash. His own team begged him to make "normal" food. He refused. Every time.

One night, a sous chef dropped a lemon tart as he plated it. Half the dessert smeared across the ceramic. Instead of remaking it, Massimo looked down and said: "Serve it." He named the plate "Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart." It became one of the most-copied dishes in fine dining.

In 2011, Osteria Francescana won its third Michelin star. In 2016, it was named the #1 restaurant in the world. Then again in 2018.

You've been told to tone it down. Make the menu more normal. Serve what everyone else serves. Those changes would probably work. Short-term. But they'd sand off the thing that could one day make people drive an hour to find you.

The guests you're really building for haven't walked in yet. They don't know your name. They're waiting for someone brave enough to serve them something they haven't had.

Don't water it down before they arrive.