Phytoalimurgy, better known as foraging, is the attitude of searching for, collecting and studying wild herbs. It is not a trend; on the contrary, it has much deeper origins. During famines or pandemics, in fact, non-cultivated vegetables represented a unique source of salvation, because they were the only ones not affected by pathogens that would have damaged the human body. This gave rise to a real science.

Since I was a child, I have been fascinated by this world thanks to long walks in the mountains with my grandfather. There I learnt the basics, but it was not until adulthood that I refined my knowledge, thanks to pioneers such as Francois Couplan, botanist, writer and one of the foremost experts in the field of wild and edible herbs, thanks to whom I learned how to recognise the leaves, the flowers, how to pick them, where to find them and how to grow them in greenhouses.

Today this is one of my passions, and one of the reasons why I choose a destination for a world trip. Phytoalimurgy is indeed a vast field, of which it is impossible to know everything. Somewhere, in a remote corner of a continent, there is bound to be a new species that deserves to be discovered and showcased on a plate. A virtually endless source of inspiration.