An unlikely bond between the king of nihilistic NY sounds Lou Reed and the three Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura was cemented when the late icon fell hard for the Italian’s transcendent food at his avant-garde restaurant in Modena, Osteria Francescana. Following the first part of our gastronomic tête-à-tête in which Bottura revealed that his diners cried tears of joy over Parmesan cheese, it was the erstwhile gastronome's absolute infatuation with food that impressed Reed, whose penchant for good food never quite came close to his wild life-long search for dark-hearted perfection, found most searingly in his white-noise classic Metal Machine Music. 

Reed's reputation as prickly and difficult betrayed a desire to make things just as he wanted them, always. “Success in life is about obsession,” says Bottura, who since 2010 has seen his flagship restaurant perched within the top five of the World's 50 Best Restaurants. “Be the best in one thing—be it simple pasta or baking bread—and people from all around the world are going to come and ask for you.”