Mauro Colagreco, chef, Silvina Dayer, agronomist, and Alessandro Di Tizio, ethnobotanist at Mirazur

The relationship between a chef and a gardener sometimes highlights the close link between produce and cuisine. In the case of chef Mauro Colagreco, it's no longer a pairing we're talking about, but a team of eight people dedicated to cultivating three vegetable gardens, two located on the outskirts of the restaurant and one cultivated on the mountain terraces of Castillon, half an hour's drive from Menton. Supervised by agronomist Silvina Dayer, the team also includes ethnobotanist Alessandro Di Tizio, a specialist in wild gathering and the interaction between people and plants. In all its aspects, the restaurant is an ecosystem at the service of biodiversity, where every means is deployed to make it a place for reflection and commitment as much as for gastronomic pleasures. It's hard to imagine, when you sit down at Le Mirazur, the extent of the work involved before you're able to place a plate on the table.

Gault&Millau: How did you start working with vegetable gardens?

Mauro Colagreco: When I arrived here in 2006, there was already this somewhat abandoned garden below the restaurant, which brought back memories of my grandfather's vegetable garden. It immediately made me want to create one. At the time, there were only three of us in the kitchen, and I was in charge. Later, we took on a gardener, but I was still very involved in the gardening tasks. Then I started going up into the mountains to pick and discover wild herbs. I saw an abandoned plot of land near the restaurant and decided to expand the vegetable garden. And so, at a certain point, I found myself with a real garden, but no real notions of agriculture. So I started studying. At that time, we were growing organically, but still using authorized granules. I had a gardener who was, shall we say, very conventional. The more I learned, the more I realized that everything we do has a direct impact on nature, that the more we take care of the soil, the more insects, bacteria and fungi proliferate, giving vegetables very particular characteristics. What we call terroir. All this learning, through reading and confrontation with the field, led me to ask myself a lot of questions about the way in which the food that entered the Mirazur was produced.

G&M: Why did you choose to supervise the gardening teams at Le Mirazur?

Silvina Dayer, agronomist: I'm an agricultural engineer from Argentina. I studied viticulture in Mendoza, the wine region, and then came to France for a postdoc in Bordeaux, where I worked for four years at INRA. I was already involved in research into climate change, heat and drought, when Mauro suggested I come along. His idea of a model of agriculture dedicated to preserving ecosystems really interested me, and I arrived in September 2021. It's not just about growing vegetables or herbs for cooking, but part of a much broader vision.

G&M: Is that why you've included an ethnobotanist on the team?

M. C.: It allows us to constantly enrich our knowledge of the terroir. And the more we delve into the subject, the more we realize that we don't know anything! For example, citron trees have been here for 200,000 years. Cherries for 5000! The influence of the Greeks was incredible. All salted fish, for example, comes from Greek culture. They were first in Marseille, then came to colonize the region. It's a land of fusions, and this rich biodiversity is as much about nature as it is about culture. And the more we feed it, the more it proliferates!

G&M: What was your background before joining the Mirazur team?

Alessandro Di Tizio, ethnobotanist: I've always loved cooking. It was during my studies at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, that I realized there was a wider dimension to cooking than just being a chef. I became interested in safeguarding gastronomic cultures, in particular the subject of wild edible plants and the traditions associated with their use. Not only from a culinary point of view, but also in terms of people's relationship with plants. I then spent a year taking a cookery course at chef Niko Romito's school in Abruzzo. I then worked with chefs to train their teams in the harvesting and use of these plants. That's how one day, while delivering herbs to a restaurant in Pescada, my hometown, I met Luca Mattioli, the executive chef at Le Mirazur. He had heard of me and asked, "Why don't you come and work with us? We need someone like you." I finally met Mauro Colagreco six months later, and started in January 2020. But then Covid came along and we called it a day. I didn't come back until two and a half years later. That's when the chef really started to imagine what my role could be: to help the gardeners pick wild plants at the right season, at the right time, and even at the right time of day; and to introduce these plants into the kitchen gardens, so as to have enough of them and make the work in the kitchen easier.

G&M: So it's your responsibility to bring something new into the kitchen?

A. Di T.: Yes, in terms of taste, but also in terms of inspiration. For example, with the R&D team, we're working on cooking methods and pot materials. Because if we want to rediscover old flavors, we also have to adopt old ways of doing things. It's a long process. The Menton region has been inhabited by many peoples and cultures who have left their plants and recipes here. We have scientific proof that where there is rich biodiversity, there is also great biocultural variety. Human activity was intended to enrich this diversity, but today we're doing the opposite. We've lost 75% of biodiversity, and that doesn't just apply to nature, but also to cultural practices.

G&M: Is it possible for you to grow everything in your gardens?

S. D.: After each trip, Mauro brings us back species and we try them all out to see which ones grow better or worse, which ones are more suited to one garden or another. We benefit from two different climates, which allows us to diversify our crops. The vegetable garden in Menton, just above the restaurant, enjoys a warmer climate, with temperatures never dipping below freezing. This means that in summer we can grow tropical plants, such as banana trees. On the other hand, there are other species that need colder climates, and these can be found in our Castillon garden, higher up in the mountains. This variety of climates is wonderful, because it allows us to broaden the menu of vegetables and fruit we can offer.

G&M: How do you anticipate the consequences of climate change?

S. D.: Our response is to give priority to annual species. This is the idea behind permaculture - or permanent culture. The idea is to create perennial ecosystems. We plant species that are resistant to drought and heat, such as pomegranates or sweet potatoes. We focus on varieties that require little water, because we know that watering is not the answer. In Mexico, we've discovered that people eat a lot of nopal, a variety of cactus whose leaf, flower and fruit can be enjoyed without watering.

G&M: Are you totally self-sufficient?

S. D.: Not quite, because that also means we stop buying things, such as seedlings. In this sense, we do a lot of recovery work to have our own bank. It's much better to sow our own seeds every year, because the plants are already acclimatized. Our intention is to produce everything we bring into the gardens ourselves, including the wood and mulch we put on the soil, for example, by recovering tree prunings and grinding them.

G&M: How do you work with the garden team on a day-to-day basis?

M. C.: We wear two hats: restaurateur and agricultural business. How do you merge these two professions? By creating common interests. We're able to offer a unique cuisine because we have this garden 300 m from the restaurant. When, for example, we put a freshly harvested fevette on the plate, we know that between what it is today and what it will be tomorrow, it's like night and day! The kitchen garden enriches our cuisine enormously, but the chef also enriches our gardens. If I'm looking for a tomato with compact flesh and a certain acidity, it's not just any variety! You have to look for a tomato seed that you haven't worked with before. When I bring back seeds from arid regions of Mexico or Australia, it's to adapt them to our climate and start thinking about the future of our crops. We're recreating subtropical ecosystems with banana and mango trees that will help maintain a certain humidity in the vegetation strata. It's all part of a virtuous circle between the kitchen, the dining room, the florist and the whole R&D team, so that in the end, there's just one universe between the restaurant and the garden. It's not always easy, but we manage.

Read the Gault &Millau review

Discover Mauro Colagreco's portrait