Don't tell Grandma we're having foam for lunch

If Italy's most celebrated modernist chef is coming over to make brunch, don't be surprised if he shows up packing a sleek nitrous oxide siphon. It's just for the breadcrumb foam.

Massimo Bottura, the energetic chef and owner of the three-Michelin-star Osteria Francescana, in Modena, arrived at my kitchen with a motley tool kit. He immediately began a passionate disquisition that would last the whole morning. In the time it took to make risotto, he covered everything from the origins of modern art, to the nature of the Italian personality.

The risotto itself, called riso al latte, is one of the most traditional and homey of Italian dishes, the kind of thing countless nonnas stir together for their grandchildren as a comforting supper. It was his idea to make it for my 6-year-old daughter as a way to pass on his childhood experience - modernized and reinterpreted through the lens of a culinary iconoclast.