Wilden.herbals meets / An interview with Aurora Zancanaro di LePolveri

LePolveri and Wilden.herbals: two kindred souls, two products that arise from ancient traditions and are reinvented in their own way. Our paths have crossed over and over again. We have cultivated and nurtured this relationship as if it were sourdough, always keeping in touch and creating tasty collaborations.

 you’ve visited this blog since its inception, you will remember that among our very first recipes, we proposed two collaborations created together with Aurora: Hangover bread and herbal tea biscuits.  And since then we have never stopped picking each other’s brains and experimenting together, as happened at our event at Fusillo Lab. On this occasion, Aurora was part of our vibrant menu with her biscuits infused with our Morning.

We interviewed Aurora to learn more about her personal story and that of her workshop a stone’s throw from the basilica of Sant’Ambrogio which in just a few years has become a real place of worship for bread lovers.

Tell us about your background and education

Born and raised in Treviso, I graduated in industrial chemistry in 2010 in Venice, where I stayed for a few more years as a research fellow. In 2014 I decided not to continue and to take a break. I attended my first baking course, which was then followed by a second one, and so forth until I landed in Milan with a job in a bakery. It was during the Expo era and it was located within the Porta Genova metropolitan market. Then many other things happened: the meeting with Longoni, I moved to London, I took another job in a mill, and then I came to the conclusion that it was time to open my own place, LePolveri, which I founded in 2017. Initially all by myself.

How did LePolveri come to be?

It all comes from the desire to put myself to the test, create a bread that could only be mine, understand what I liked about previous experiences, what I didn’t want to repeat and what I was looking for as a new stimulus.

A fun fact about the name: it is a game that links chemical reagents that are often in powder form to flour, the only powders that can “react” by transforming first into dough and then into bread.

How do you choose your raw materials?

We do a lot of research. First of all on the quality of the product, its specificity of use, and the workability that we could obtain. I want to emphasize that we try to have direct relationships with those who produce each individual product. For us, establishing a relationship of trust is essential, whether you are a grower, a miller, a farmer, or a retailer of raw materials. Whenever possible we meet them in person, also because we are curious to visit the places or fields where they work. We have decided to have very few non-EU products and almost all of our raw materials are organic.

How did the collaboration with Wilden.herbals come about?

We have been collaborating with Wilden since a magical moment that marks the beginning for both of us. I think that a specific concept of ‘research’ binds us: we take great care in the choice of flavors, and in the rediscovery of products with a very ancient history. And then we share an implied culture of food not only as a stomach filler but as a nourishing element for the body and the mind.

Healthy and wild is the motto of Wilden.herbals. What does it mean for you?

Interpreting the “wild” part of the motto in Milan is a bit difficult, except perhaps for the daily thrills that the jungle of traffic gives us cyclists. For me it means being able to feel my body, using it for a walk in the mountains, feeling it breathe cold and clean air, soaking naked in a stream and being mesmerized by the roar of the water and the beauty of the vivid colors, drinking the water that is closer to the source and to be an undivided whole, in peace and in rhythm with everything.