ROME — The first soup kitchen worthy of a Michelin star is set to open this week in Milan.
The project is the brainchild of Massimo Bottura, whose three-Michelin-starred restaurant Osteria Francescana this week finished second at the annual "World's 50 Best Restaurants" awards in London.
Forty of Italy's most prominent chefs will cook gourmet dishes using leftovers from the nearby Expo 2015, this year's edition of the World's Fair being held in the northern Italian city.
The food will then be delivered to a soup kitchen run by the Catholic humanitarian agency Caritas.
Not only will the diners be treated to gourmet food, the center's furniture has been donated by some of Italy's most famous designers and brands.
Some 47,648 people used soup kitchens or homeless shelters in Italy in 2011, when the latest figures were collated by the country's National Institute for Statistics.
Although northwestern Italy is a relatively wealthy corner of the country, it has a disproportionately high number of homeless people, The Local Italy reported in January.