The Story Behind...
Roots, Tradition, and the First Spark
My relationship with creation didn't begin in a professional studio or a fine art academy, it began in the warm, scented kitchen of my family home in Italy. Growing up, food was the universal language of my childhood. It was how we celebrated, communicated, and stayed connected.
My grandmother was my first true mentor. Standing beside her at the kitchen counter, I watched simple ingredients turn into gestures of love. She taught me respect for the product, patience in technique, and a fundamental truth that would guide the rest of my life: behind every recipe lies a story waiting to be told.
At the same time, I began by designing stage sets and painting murals in my hometown. Between 2013 and 2015, I participated in Milan’s Fuori Salone during Design Week, presenting site-specific installations combining recycled materials, photography, and painting.
From Numbers to Flavors: The Corporate Detour & The Copenhagen Shift
Life, however, rarely follows a straight line. Before fully committing to my creative calling, my career took a very different path: into the structured, analytical world of accounting and finance.
Working with numbers taught me precision, structure, and discipline, but deep down, my mind was searching for a different kind of balance. The corporate routine only amplified my hunger for tangible creation, human connection, and sensory storytelling. I decided to make a bold move, leaving numbers behind to bet entirely on my passion for food and art.
That turning point led me to Copenhagen, a city that completely revolutionized my approach to gastronomy. Immersed in the Nordic culinary culture, I dove deep into food research, exploring local sourcing, foraging, zero-waste philosophies, and modern plant-based techniques. It was in Copenhagen that I realized food wasn't just sustenance or cooking; it was science, ecology, and pure conceptual design.
In 2018 I landed in Amsterdam! This intense period of research and culinary evolution culminated in the publication of my cookbook, It's my Kind of Vegan Story.
The Turning Point: Finding Art in What We Discard
Spending endless hours in kitchens and event spaces inevitably brought me face-to-face with a quiet, uncomfortable reality: the overwhelming amount of waste our modern society generates.
While prepping ingredients, I found myself captivated by what usually ended up in the bin: citrus peels, vegetable skins, spent coffee grounds, and discarded packaging. To me, these weren't trash. They possessed extraordinary textures, deep natural pigments, and raw emotional power.
I realized that the boundary between a kitchen counter, an accounting sheet, and an artist's workbench is purely imaginary. The same attention to detail I once applied to numbers, and later to ingredients, was now asking to be applied to raw materials.
I began bringing these discarded elements into my studio space. Spent coffee grounds were transformed into tactile, organic clay; food remnants became natural dyes; discarded industrial packing turned into handmade paper, structural sculptures and textured wall installations.
My transition into visual art was not a departure from gastronomy, it was its organic, necessary evolution. I discovered that the mindset of a zero-waste chef and the vision of a contemporary artist share the exact same heart: the ability to see profound beauty, value, and life where others see nothing.
Expanding the Circle: Artist, Chef, and Independent Curator
As my artistic research grew, so did the desire to build spaces for collective reflection. This led me naturally into art curation.
As an independent curator, I design, curate, and produce exhibitions, group shows, and cultural events focused on communitarian engagement, queer and freedom celebration and multidisciplinary dialogue. Curating allows me to bring together artists, designers, and thinkers who share a commitment to environmental consciousness. For me, curating an exhibition is remarkably similar to designing a tasting menu: it is about pacing, harmony, creating dialogue between different elements, and guiding the visitor through a meaningful, multisensory journey.
Today: NDSM Amsterdam & The Circular Vision
Today, my studio and creative home are located in the vibrant, industrial art community of NDSM in Amsterdam. Surrounded by history, shipyards, and raw urban energy, I work as a multidisciplinary artist, chef, and storyteller. My work operates in a continuous, closed loop:
In the Kitchen: I create plant-based culinary experiences centered on seasonal awareness, zero-waste techniques, and flavor memory.
In the Studio: I sculpt, paint, and build installations using upcycled materials, organic fragments, and salvaged textures.
In the Community: I facilitate hands-on workshops, creative dinners, and interactive gatherings, embracing a sustainable, creative lifestyle.
Why "vegan bear chef & lab"?
Leaving a stable career in finance to pursue plant-based culinary research, and later stepping into the world of contemporary art, were both acts of taking risks. Living creatively requires betting on the unexpected, taking a chance on an unused ingredient, an unconventional material, or an unspoken emotion. Whether I am serving an intimate multi-course dinner or exhibiting a new collection of sculptures, my goal remains unchanged: to invite you to pause, reflect, and rediscover the beauty of our relationship with nature, food, and consumption.
Nothing is wasted. Everything is transformed. Every project is an open invitation to share that journey together.
