Daniela Cicioni

The roads that lead a person to embrace the profession of a cook are countless. Daniela Cicioni got here after studying and graduating in something completely different, namely architecture. From Lombardy, with a house on the hills that overlook lake Como from its west bank, in 2007 she decided to change her life: she gave up her profession as landscape architect and began an uphill journey of her own in the kitchen.

Daniela decided to go beyond a vegetarian vision of life: “I sensed that nature encloses an enormous gastronomic potential and so I promised myself to find the way to try all of its facets”. A vegan, she took a diploma as “natural cook” from La Sana Gola school, thanks to her knowledge of macrobiotics and nutrition science. A specialization in vegan catering followed, and then she became the chef at Centro Botanico in Milan, a location in which she remained until 2012.

Now that we’re in 2014, not only does she collaborate with Identità by pouring into its website excellent recipes that make no reference to the animal world whatsoever, but she also works as a freelance chef, a consultant and a teacher of vegan and raw food: “I discovered the raw diet thanks to the web – I’m thinking of Matthew Kenney, Russell James, Fruttalia and Valdo Vaccaro – and was fascinated by it. For instance, I study the evolution of taste tied to health and food, making experiments with vegan and raw dishes.

“In this sense, I often use non-cooking techniques, which are capable of maintaining the vital potential of the ingredients, and in some cases, of increasing it. This, for instance, is the case of germination, sprouting and fermentation”. Few people in Italy have such a thorough view of vegan cuisine. More importantly, she’s not a sectarian: “I believe in the revolutionary capacity of respect, in every occasion and at every level. All this while never forgetting to pleasure the palate.”