MARCH seeks to answer the question, “What does the Mediterranean mean?” by researching the gastronomy, history, and cultures of the region.
The word ‘march’ signifies a territory in the boundary lands; an area of land on the border between two territories; a frontier between realms.
Boundaries and frontiers are in part the same thing but have two different connotations. Those two meanings are very important to our philosophy of cooking.
Frontiers are often discussed when talking about exploring and discovery; boundaries often represent limits, but for us, these limits drive us to search deeper.
The edge effect is an actual ecological concept that describes how there is a greater biodiversity in the region where two adjacent ecosystems overlap, such as land/water or forest/grasslands.
We are very inspired by these edges, where two or more territories meet. Our focus will be the Mediterranean, this collection of marches that have endless layers of cultures, languages, ideas, skills.
The driving goal for our research is not just to look at a collection of possible ingredients or understand the history of farming and fishing. MARCH is about the exploration of this tension and richness that can be reached by no other means but with a clash between worlds over centuries, all piled into one place. These marches are what we want to explore.