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A Canadian based in Copenhagen and a self-taught chef with a passion for fermentation, David Zilber loves the act of transformation. A culinary scientist, photographer and co-author of the best-selling “The Noma Guide to Fermentation” (Artisan), he lets himself be guided by his curiosity. From kitchen to kitchen and country to country, David Zilber listens to his intuition. His attention to the world echoes Aigle’s story.

MEET

How did your childhood shape you creatively?

My mother is from the Caribbean, my father is an Ashkenazi Jew. I grew up in Toronto, Canada, where I went to a Frenchspeaking school, but my whole life outside school was in English and my best friends came from all over the world... all that made difference seem normal. When you grow up with a childhood like mine, you have more colours in your palette to paint with in life. This obviously influenced my life and my creativity, whether through photography, cooking or writing.

 

 

This unconventional education led you to the kitchen?

I became a chef because I was bad at everything. As a teenager, I got very bad grades at school. It’s funny because today people present me as the “intellectual chef.» At 18 I had to decide to do something with my life, and I “fell into” cooking. The practical, tangible side of cooking appealed to me. We are far from university classrooms where you have to study, answer abstract questions, take an exam and see your work graded by a professor. In the kitchen, you see for yourself whether your combinations work or not, whether your zbaglione is working or your ice cream is the right texture.

 

How did that teenager you describe eventually end up at Noma, the famous Michelin-starred restaurant in Copenhagen?

Even though I was bad at school, I really liked to learn, especially science. I’m naturally curious, and I like to understand how things work. I was interested in food and wanted to know everything. By asking questions, I ended up in a lab in Denmark, concocting new recipes from fungi and bacteria because I knew how to answer questions about the composition of their proteins or fatty acids.

 

 

 

You are best known for your passion for fermentation. How would you define it, and why does fermentation fascinate you so much?

The best definition of fermentation, quite simply, would be the transformation of one ingredient into another using a microorganism. Fermentation is fascinating because once you understand how these transformations take place and what they actually mean, you realise that fermentation is basically about the living world. It’s one of the best entry points to understanding nature in all its splendour.

 

On this subject, after experiencing Canadian nature, you discovered the Danish countryside. How does nature inspire your work?

What’s funny is that in the end, I haven’t really changed latitude between Toronto and Copenhagen. You see the same species of trees, flowers, vegetation and, to some extent, wild animals. I’ve worked at the Noma for the last six years, and this restaurant encourages you to be in contact with nature. I’ve constantly been surrounded by nature. That’s probably what I enjoy most in the kitchen. Today, it’s easy not to be in contact with nature, to tick off your shopping list and order your supplies from a delivery service. If you want to be a good cook, you take it one step further and go into the forest. Wander in the wilderness, visit a farm and see where the ingredients grow.

Both the food and fashion industries face environmental challenges. How can we innovate to protect the world around us?

I’m constantly trying to innovate in the kitchen to help build a more sustainable world and protect the one we have, helping people find truly delicious solutions and low impact alternatives. Food is not necessarily a problem, but it will always be a big part of our environmental impact. It cannot be otherwise. People need to eat. And eating depends on our environment. But how we choose to do this can look very different, depending on what we choose to eat and how we choose to cook.

In my work, I try to find better ways, through fermentation, science, history, and heritage, to make the foods we eat as delicious as they can be, while being nourishing, minimally processed and having as little impact as possible, no matter where they are grown on Earth. I know it can seem like a complex problem, but I’m happy to take it on.

What does Aigle mean to you?

Aigle represents tradition, a love of the outdoors and the different ways of being in nature, going outside. These are clothes that are made to last, keeping you warm and dry. Clothes that make you feel comfortable and safe even when you are in the mud up to your knees digging for vegetables! Aigle creates clothes you can wear today, like your grandfather could have 50 years ago, or like your child will in 50 years.

If you were to create a dish to represent Aigle, which foods would you choose?

I would make a big salad of fresh vegetables and foraged plants. I would grill some vegetables, I would keep some vegetables raw, I would prepare a beautiful simple vinaigrette, perhaps made with fresh berries or plums that I picked today, I would press them to get a deliciously tangy flavour... That’s a dish that represents Aigle. A dish that represents the outdoors.

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