François Couplan is a specialist in the use of wild and cultivated plants, a subject he has studied for thirty-five years on all five continents. Having earned his degree as an ethnobotanist at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, François Couplan has been teaching the uses of wild plants through hand-on training courses since 1975 both in Europe (France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Crete) and in the United States, where he lived with several native North American tribes, learning their traditions. He is the creator of soft survival courses, profound experiences of life in harmony with nature. François Couplan blends his scientific background with his own adventures, culled from years of explorations around the world. Author of 35 books, Couplan is a regular contributor to magazines in France, Switzerland, Germany and the United States, and has published more than 600 articles. He has also created the Institute for Research on Flora Properties (in France and Switzerland) and is an accomplished photographer whose pictures often illustrate his articles and books.
For years, François Couplan has travelled the globe looking for food traditions from different cultures. His research has revealed many fascinating relationships between humans and plants. Couplan is adamant that agriculture be naturally environmentally friendly, aiming for semi-cultivated spontaneous vegetation, and he set out to demonstrate the virtues of unknown edible plants through conferences, training workshops, tailored services, and various media. He collaborates frequently with chefs around the world, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten (New York), Marc Veyrat (Annecy, France), Carlo Crisci (Cossonay, Switzerland) and Jean-Marie Dumaine (Sanzig, Germany), focusing on the “rehabilitation” of forgotten flavours. Couplan is currently studying the eating habits of our ancestors, particularly during the Palaeolithic period. In addition, the world-wide encyclopaedia of edible plants he is compiling will summarise the results of his many explorations.
PLANTES, A LOVE STORY Although I was brought up at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, I fell in love with plants at a very early age. I still have vivid memories of picking mushrooms and wild strawberries with my parents in the Alps of Haute Savoie. I would lay chanterelles in my mother’s basket, imagining the overflowing, savoury omelette we would soon be relishing. I probably wasn’t born greedy, but I certainly did become it… It is not surprising that for me, studying mathematics seemed dry and not connected to reality, while rock music which I played for years did imply an unhealthy lifestyle. So I returned to nature, my first love. A meeting with two devoted octogenarians was to put me back on track : the first, a botanist and poet from the Vosges and my master in botany ; and the second, a vegetarian uncle with whom I used to harvest wild vegetables in Provence. Fond of good cuisine, I felt compelled to investigate systematically the nutritional aspects and unknown flavours of European vegetation. After a year in Corsica, I spent ten years on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, exploring the Wild West of the Unites States. Back in France, an encounter with chef Marc Veyrat enhanced my passion for edible wild plants, introducing me to a world of yet unsuspected flavours that I had only caught a glimpse of during twenty years of research. Yves Coppens' moral support encouraged me to go further, and to have my skills formally recognised by earning a diploma from the École Pratique des Hautes Études, and then a doctorate from the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. I had decided to explore the world in order to learn how plants are cooked and eaten in various cultures around the world. For ten years, the discoveries have been numerous - often strange, sometimes bewildering - yet above all extremely stimulating. In fact, I now find it difficult to appreciate everyday western cooking, which is not particularly exciting. There is still much to learn, and I am still discovering new and amazing things about plants.
More than thirty books, two Encyclopaedias and over six hundred press articles have resulted from these experiments. The project I’d like to develop most of all, if God lets me live that long, is an Encyclopedia on edible plants of the world, a global and synthetical work on the nutritious and appetizing aspects the world of plants has to offer. As you can see, there is much to be done... François Couplan et Françoise Marmy live in Switzerland, in canton Fribourg, with their two children Sylvain (12 years old) and Melissa (9 years old).
last update : 2005-05-29 5:25 PM |
Ethnobotanist,
Ph.D.
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