“We are lucky to have a restaurant with roots, anchored in the land”

“Many moments of my life are linked to France. Starting with classical dance, which I practiced intensively from childhood, and for which the compulsory language was French, because all the dance steps have French names. My parents, of Italian origin, met in La Plata, Argentina, where we grew up, and took classes at the Alliance Française. At home, I have always been surrounded by French literature. Later, the father of my children, a lawyer, obtained a scholarship to come and study European law, which led us to come and live in France for a while, during which time I notably studied at the Sorbonne.

When Mauro [son frère] decided to settle in France too, in 2001, I had already gone back to Argentina, but I helped him to get started, to enroll in the hotel school of La Rochelle, to meet people. When he started his project at Mirazur, in Menton, in 2010, I worked for him from afar, on the communication part with the Spanish-speaking press. I helped him write his book, while pursuing my artistic career in dance, theatre, performance and events.

The bottle garden

A few years later, Mauro offered me a kind of artistic and editorial direction within the restaurant. I moved to Menton for good, in January 2020, just before the first confinement. We fell into the void, it was a very scary moment, we wanted to do so many things, and we couldn’t do anything anymore. At least that’s what it seemed to us at first. But we are lucky to have a restaurant with roots, anchored in the earth, a vegetable garden, agricultural tasks that are essential, and that is what saved us. While everything had stopped, life in the garden continued. We even had huge quantities of products…

“These drinks are alive: you have to know when to feed them, give them sugar or fruit, check the temperature…”

We had to follow, we started cooking, for hospitals, nurses, doctors, and then we explored ways to preserve all these magnificent products, in particular through fermentation. This is how I started experimenting with kefirs and kombuchas, in an attempt to put the garden in a bottle. These drinks are alive: you have to know when to feed them, give them sugar or fruit, check the temperature… It’s the same principle as the permaculture vegetable garden, it’s life that grows, which requires attention, a look, a dialogue.

With the kombuchas and the plants used, I explore the acidity, the flavors, the tannins, the effervescence… The day the Mirazur reopened, Mauro offered my elderberry sparkling wine to all the guests as a welcome. With Kruda, the brand I created with Roberto Biglia, we explore the pairings between food and non-alcoholic drinks that bring lightness and nuance to meals. I compose them according to the seasons of the garden, with flowers and herbs – hibiscus, lavender, mint, rooibos –, but also leaves of the fig tree, lemon tree, olive tree, emblematic of our region and vibrant and lively fragrances. that surround us. »