To condense Enrico Bartolini’s experience and accomplishments in just one article is quite a feat.

Italy’s most decorated Michelin-starred chef — with a total of 14 — Bartolini has also created a fine dining network that continues to leave a gastronomic mark in Italy and abroad. His most recent accomplishment is being named to helm the Monsieur Dior restaurant in the French brand’s new flagship on Milan’s Via Montenapoleone opening this month.

In Milan, he has been leading his namesake restaurant within the MUDEC museum since 2016 but he also heads an impressive number of other fine dining venues, from the Glam inside the Venart Palace on the Grand Canal in Venice and the Locanda Sant’Uffizio in Penango, to Bluh Furore on the Amalfi Coast, L’Aurum in Franciacorta, and QUID — Unique Italian Dining in Rome, which opened in May. Bartolini is a global force as well, lending his culinary expertise to Roberto’s in Dubai, Spiga in Hong Kong, Amici in Bali and Enrico Bartolini Hangzhou.

“I directly manage six restaurants, the others are in a partnership or as a consultant. This may be a bit unusual and years ago when I started to delegate it may have looked as if I was not caring for the restaurants, but for me it’s the exact opposite,” says Bartolini, sitting in a lounge area of his MUDEC restaurant.

At QUID, he partnered with Colombian chef Juan Camilo Quintero and in each of the restaurants, he works with chefs of the highest level, from Davide Boglioli at MUDEC and Donato Ascani at Glam to Marco Galtarossa at Villa Elena in Bergamo and Gabriele Boffa at Locanda del Sant’Uffizio.

“Choosing the right person to hand over a project on a made-to-measure basis is an act of guardianship and has allowed me to learn to trust,” he admits.

Clearly, human relations are a cornerstone of all of his initiatives, and building solid teams is a priority. Humbly, he says this is a way for him to learn and fuel his passion as he shares it with others.

“Each project is different, there is no scheme or cookie-cutter format,” he says, but “organization and determination” are some of the qualities he seeks in his partners.

“I am happy that each location reflects the biodiversity of the territory and that patrons may feel that every trip is worth it,” says Bartolini, who speaks confidently but carefully chooses his words.

He is sensitive to the needs of his teams. For example, Bartolini makes a point of closing his restaurant in MUDEC two days a week, with shifts that allow his staff of 40 to have some downtime. “I can’t think of having more than 15 tables, that’s the right size for our team,” he says.

As in fashion, Bartolini has witnessed the trendy side of fine dining. Twenty years ago chefs wanted to surprise diners with new recipes or techniques, but today he contends guests want to be “reassured. People eat everything everywhere. You even find so-called gourmet preparations in supermarkets. It’s confusing,” he says with some discomfort. “I find there is beauty in leading guests to tasting, making something very complex into something understandable.”

His passion for cooking goes as far back as his days in kindergarten. “I never stopped playing with ingredients,” he says, smiling.

“My cuisine is made of antique recipes seen with modern eyes. Balance, pleasantness and vitamins are the elements I seek. In particular, at MUDEC I live between Milan, Tuscany, Piedmont and Sicily. In every other restaurant, talent and the territory are central, because every project is thought of as unique and original.”

Among his more celebrated recipes are the risotto with red turnips purée and Gorgonzola cheese; oil and lime “buttons” or round strips of pasta in cacciucco, a special Tuscan fish and seafood stew or soup, and a chocolate soufflé.

A native of Castelmartini in Tuscany and a graduate of the professional Institute Hotel “F. Martini” of Montecatini Terme, Bartolini spent the early days of his career in Paris and London, working with chefs Paolo Petrini and Mark Page, and once back in Italy, with Massimiliano Alajmo.

Smiling, he recalls those days in Paris, aged 19, “where luxury dining and starred chef were concentrated in one single city, I felt like a soccer player at the World Cup.”

It was in 2005, while managing the Le Robinie restaurant in Oltrepò Pavese, a one-hour drive from Milan, that Bartolini began to be noticed as one of the most talented and interesting young chefs on the Italian scene. Three years later, at age 29, he was awarded his first Michelin star.

A second star was bestowed in 2012 for the Devero restaurant in the hotel of the same name in Cavenago Brianza, 20 miles from Milan.

2016 marked an important milestone in Bartolini’s professional and personal life. That November the Michelin Guide assigned him four stars — two in Milan, one in Bergamo at the Casual Restaurant he opened, and one at the exclusive resort L’Andana in Tuscany’s Castiglione della Pescaia.

Never before did a chef conquer four stars at once in the history of the famous guide.

The following year he was assigned the fifth Michelin star for Glam, which in 2020 went on to receive a second star.

In 2020 Michelin gave the highest award of three stars to Bartolini’s restaurant at MUDEC, giving Milan a three-star restaurant after 20 years.

More stars were bestowed until Bartolini last year reached a record of 14 stars, plus a Michelin Green Star for Poggio San Felice, making him the chef with the most stars in Italy and the second in the world after Alain Ducasse.

“These recognitions lead to success and notoriety, and I honor them, but I am not overwhelmingly pressured to maintain them,” says Bartolini. “The expectations are high, so seeing guests leaving the restaurant happy with what they experienced is what gives me pleasure.”

He is aware of the controversies surrounding the high prices of Michelin-starred restaurants, but he underscores that it is “very costly to manage them, we put together highest experts in bakery, pasta, pastry and the best professionals.”

Bartolini’s passion for art and design is reflected by the restaurants’ interior projects, the music and the scents all carefully chosen depending on the venue. “With their eyes shut, guests should be able to know where they are,” he says.

Asked about his dream project, he simply says that he would like to “continue to share with guests the experience, organizing the work even better, and evolving fine dining.”

At the same time, Bartolini sees a future of “partnering with others, sharing experiences and competences,” something the famed chef highly values. The best example: his work with photographer Giò Martorana. “By watching him find the right shot and the harmony of the food on the plate,” he explains. “I learned to better present it.”