Ossigeno

26 27 #pop-up chef _ going deeper curated by Stefano Santangelo food ]. For this project he has released free resources that can be used by everybody via a dedicated app, his website and workshops in every corner of the globe, designed to spread this new lifestyle. Redzepi believes that we all should be foragers , and conceives his “Vild Mad” as a tool to decode the landscape and its culinary potentials. There are others who have fully integrated foraging into their lives and have applied it to disciplines quite different one from another. An example of this is Australian chef and performance artist Andrew Rewald. Since 2011 he has led a myriad of projects in countries such as Iceland, Japan, Malaysia, Germany and Australia, following the reproductive cycles of local plants in an extended gathering project, in order to study the specific values of wild as well as man-made environments. This work ranges from gathering, to preparing and sharing of food, thus becoming an interactive show and a social experience all in one. This shared experience may be part of the journey or its conclusion. It is a tour intended to teach neophytes to this foraging faith how to recognise which wild plants are edible in both the urban micro and macro-systems. As was to be expected, this phenomenon has reached global proportions. And not only that, for quite some time now it has gone beyond its own niche of protected ecosystems to trespassing in the urban realm through urban foraging. Preys of urban foragers are the ancestors of those that flourish and crowd our fields. Arranged in lines like disciplined legionaries in our collective battle for food along with their sophisticated floral brothers-in-arms - the result of human manipulation which, in most cases, are used as decorative objects. From the tough species that grow in gardens to the plants that populate our personal versions of the nostalgia for paradise [city parks], urban foraging provides a clear picture of what is “wild” and what we actually are, animals almost alien to our own ecosystem. Far from being a fleeting fashion, the avid community of urban foragers has their own reference websites, such as mundraub.org [in German, but with highly intuitive navigation] which contains a detailed map of Europe to eat , through the geolocations of all the urban fruit trees and bushes in Europe. For some cities there is also a full map of every street and park. Slowly making progress towards an endless horizon of possibilities, the hunters and gatherers of the 21 st century have realised, and share it with us, that the forest we were trying to clear away to survive is the same that will help us continue to live. A recurring theme throughout the course of human history is that of looking back while we move forward. We do this in order to see what we have left behind, out of curiosity, and as an antidote to the anxiety of the present. This return to our roots has happened again in this century, more specifically in our decade, which is a true golden age for the art of cooking. Characterised by an enthusiastic interest in food and the varied ways of preparing it, it has led to the revival of foraging. The underlying concept masked in this term is the never-abandoned practice of turning directly to nature for harvesting and gathering those raw foods that are lacking from the table. To help shine some light on this practice we can turn to alimurgia, or the science of feeding on everything we did not - or were not able to - capitulate to the dictates of agriculture and industry. Because, despite the fact that foraging is a practice open to everyone, the basic knowledge of plants and the rest of the living beings in our local ecosystems is vital to avoiding any foreseeable collateral damage. At higher levels, it is an absolutely necessary tool for refined chef-alchemists. A synergy of forces drive modern gatherers to trust nature again to supplement modern diets. These forces should certainly include the wish to eat [hopefully] uncontaminated food, with zero environmental impact, and to find new ingredients for a contemporary cuisine that is always hungry for new things to try. Therefore, foraging is intended as an evolution of the old tradition of harvesting or gathering raw biological resources such as fruits, plants, invertebrate/vertebrate animals [the term also encompasses shellfish and fish], as a supplement to products grown in the fields, and also as an experience to get to know our environment. In fact, those who have adopted this practice are moved [or, as a consequence of this practice, are heavily influenced] by a passion to explore natural spaces, an act of knowledge that leads to respect for nature and its spirit. “ Tasting the Landscape " can become a way to take control of our destiny, using the ideas that our ancestor believed in, through which they thought they became part of the spirit of what they ate. Hence, some modern gatherers end up becoming Arcimboldesque heads, metaphorically speaking, new Priests of Nature. Besides the talent of Valeria Margherita Mosca, our renowned Pop-Up Chef for this issue of Ossigeno, we would like to further understand the extent of the foraging phenomenon. And what could be better than mentioning chef René Redzepi. His two Michelin star Danish restaurant, Noma, has been chosen as the world's best restaurant four times. He also runs an initiative called Vild Mad [Danish for wild tasting the landscape: the art of foraging «The dominion of man depends wholly on the arts and sciences. A man is but what he knows. Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed»² ² Francis Bacon, Novum Organum , 1620 p o p - u p c h e f _ g o i n g d e e p e r p o p - u p c h e f _ g o i n g d e e p e r