A vegetable garden at the Italian Embassy in Paris
The Italian Embassy in Paris, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, wanted to celebrate with a tribute to the botanical studies and gastronomic passions of the Renaissance genius: if his herbarium remained an unfinished work, the observation of nature _ with which painting “confronts and struggles” _ was the basis of his thought and his art.
ILeonardo’s Potager is made up of five large raised planters and a composting area in the western part of the garden of the Hôtel de La Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, in Rue de Varenne, home of the Embassy. The garden, which will be a source of supply for the Embassy’s kitchens, is therefore a true urban garden according to contemporary sustainability criteria, but also as a vehicle for the diffusion and exchange of the values of Italian gastronomic culture.
The project, conceived by Maria Greco Naccarato, photographer and gastronome, with the collaboration of the architects Muriel Consigny and Camilla Paleari, was managed by Filippo Pizzoni in the choice and composition of the horticultural varieties.
Flowers and vegetables well known since ancient times are cultivated in the Potager, such as catmint, black Milan courgette and white chicory, alongside vegetables that later arrived in Europe and were cultivated in infinite cultivars, such as the Florentine red tomato, together with aubergines and radicchio to represent contemporary Italian biodiversity. The cultivation of the garden will continue over time thanks to the help of SlowFood. Leonardo’s Potager was inaugurated on 28 May 2019 by the Italian Ambassador to France, Teresa Castaldo.
