Bottura and Martínez share a Miami dining programme

A guest-chef evening can put two culinary approaches into conversation without moving either restaurant. Once Upon a Kitchen’s May 2024 Miami announcement brought Massimo Bottura and Virgilio Martínez together at W South Beach.

WAYFARER’s preview identified GR8 Experience and the hotel as partners in a programme linked with the city’s Formula One week. It described a cocktail reception followed by a six-course dinner for an announced audience of 120 guests.

Bottura’s Osteria Francescana and Martínez’s Central supplied the restaurant references behind the pairing. The article emphasised the possibility of meeting the chefs and hearing about their approaches, rather than simply presenting the dinner as a list of dishes.

The hotel ballroom introduced another element: panoramic projections whose announced imagery ranged from Tuscan landscapes to Machu Picchu. Those visual references connected the room with places associated with the wider culinary narrative.