The Cavallino also soon established itself as the perfect location for wining and dining the marque’s most well-known clients. As early as 1953 Italian film director Roberto Rossellini was a guest when he arrived in Maranello to personally choose the Ferrari 212 Inter Coupé – with coachwork by Pinin Farina – he bought for his wife, Swedish film star Ingrid Bergman.

From then on the modest saletto attracted visits from a roll call of famous names in racing and beyond, including the likes of Paul Newman, the Shah of Persia and Peter Sellers. The list of visitors doesn’t end there either…

‘Many famous people have come to the Cavallino: actors, sports champions, nobles and royalty,’ recounts Piero Ferrari, Vice Chairman of Ferrari. ‘A lot of Formula 1 history has been created here too. For instance, in 1981 Bernie Ecclestone and Jean-Marie Balestre came to lay the foundations for the so-called Formula 1 ‘Concorde Agreement’ that was to be signed that year in Paris on the Place de la Concorde.’

Clientele also included piloti past and present, with the likes of Niki Lauda, Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, and Michael Schumacher all regularly tussling with a menu that challenged their rigid athlete diets to the guilty limit.

As for Enzo, he was known in these parts as una buona forchetta – literally ‘a good fork’. Meaning he liked to eat. And the Cavallino menu was replete with traditional dishes. Modena-born Enzo favoured tortelli in burro e salvia (tortelli in butter and sage), followed by risotto with parmesan cheese, from nearby Parma. In winter there would be bollito misto – a mixed broth of boiled meats.

As the years passed the restaurant’s walls became more and more embellished, and for enthusiasts the place became a racing magnet, to visit not just for the excellent food. The interior decorations mushroomed to include original helmets from greats like Schumacher, and V12 engines from Ferrari road and road cars alike.

When the Ferrari founder celebrated his ninetieth birthday with a huge factory lunch, well over fifteen hundred past and present employees attended – and the Cavallino did the catering. The entire production line of the eight-cylinder engines was suspended for a whole day in order to allow it to be decked out to resemble the restaurant.

Following Enzo’s death in 1988 the private saletto was left intact but unused, in honour of its most revered buona forchetta.

Now, a new chapter in the story of the Cavallino is beginning, thanks to the collaboration between chef Massimo Bottura and architect India Mahdavi.

Massimo Bottura, born and raised in Modena, describes the reinvigorated Cavallino as ‘a new vision and a new way of bringing Modenese cuisine to life’. As such, the history and identity of the area is revisited in a contemporary style to bring out the best of the past in the flavours of the present and the future.

A new red façade adorns the old farmhouse building and inside India Mahdavi has played with the traditional decorative vocabulary of the Italian trattoria. The floor is covered with terracotta tiles, the walls are oak-panelled – and, of course, feature photographs, posters, souvenirs and memorabilia – but there is bespoke furniture and a pixelized interpretation of the Prancing House logo to create a unique identity for the restaurant.

Open now for bookings, the Ristorante Cavallino embraces a vision of hospitality to offer everyone the possibility to be part of the Ferrari universe, to breathe in the same atmosphere, and to celebrate the delights of an Italian way of life.