Iolanda Bustos

I feel like a daughter of my landscape, I was born in Palafrugell in 1976 and in 1980 my parents moved to Palau-Sator, one of the most beautiful villages of the Empordanet. My father was a farmer and shepherd, he kept goats and sheep, sold milk, made cheese, raised lambs, chickens, rabbits.... My mother, of Andalusian origin, decided to open a restaurant to be able to sell everything they produced themselves, it was a self-sustainable kitchen, where they highlighted Catalan recipes that the masoveras of the village had taught my mother.

I have learned the trade of cooking with my mother Genoveva, I have inherited the knowledge of the use of plants, her Andalusian salt shaker for seasoning, the importance of a good pantry, respect for traditional recipes in natural cooking, and above all the values of life that as good cooks we must put in each recipe to thrill with our food.

Many people know me as "the chef of flowers", the biodynamic chef or the naturalist cook... these are labels that define much more than a cuisine, these are the representation of a lifestyle that does not follow fashions, based on the rhythm of nature and connected with the fauna and the floral world that surrounds us. My mission as a cook is to make people love nature through its flavor, I want to raise awareness about the use of plants, the importance of respecting them and share a new way of seeing the landscape.