Oriana Zerdalo

Oriana Zerdalo is a passionate chef, of Argentine origin, who grew up in the hustle and bustle of a family restaurant, between cuisine, ingredients and flavors. From childhood, she developed a vision of cooking as a multisensory experience, a living art combining concentration, creativity and the pleasure of the senses.

She began her professional career in Argentina, first as a cook at El Jardin Encantado (Salta, 2017-2019), then as a kitchen clerk at La Nueva China (2019-2021), where she deepens her know-how, especially in Chinese culinary techniques.

Based in France since 2023, Oriana is now the head of party at Café Tropisme, where she participates in the development of menus, the setting of plates and the creation of vegetarian dishes.

Committed to a transition to vegan cuisine since 2022, she cultivates an approach attentive to seasonal products, natural fermentations and world cuisine. She values ethical, creative and environmentally friendly gastronomy, which she also enriches through her passion for art, architecture and travel.

Rich in international experiences and insatiable curiosity, Oriana now places plant-based cuisine at the heart of its culinary approach.

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During the culinary residency at Villa Rocabella, Oriana Zerdalo wants to explore cooking as a space for creation, engagement and transmission, drawing on her dual career as a cook and as an architect.

For her, cooking is not only an art of taste, but a living language, a place of memory, identity and sharing. Originally from Argentina and coming from a multicultural family of cooks, she conceives each dish as a sensitive composition, where textures, colors, shapes and smells tell stories of exile, transmission and connection to the living.

Committed to an ecological and ethical approach, during the residency she wishes to deepen her thinking about sustainable cuisine: respectful of the seasons, short circuits, by promoting anti-waste practices and natural conservation techniques (fermentation, lactofermentation, koji).

By experimenting with new vegetarian and vegan combinations, Oriana dreams of transforming each meal into an aesthetic and political experience, where beauty, taste, and environmental awareness meet.

For her, the residence will be a living laboratory to continue to build bridges between culinary creativity, committed crafts and the memory of gesture, in a permanent dialogue between the body, the earth and the table.

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