Chapter V
Ingredients & Suppliers
— the chain of care —
« I share here my favourite foods and my gem suppliers — those that make plant-based food nourishing and delicious. »
My favourite ingredients
These ingredients return again and again in my kitchen for their nutritional, energetic and gustatory value.
- Raw Criollo cacao — ancient rare variety (1 % of world production), with exceptional nutritional qualities that roasting does not destroy. Moving from cooked chocolate to raw chocolate is moving from a heavy pleasure to a deeply nourishing one.
- Spirulina — blue-green algae at 50-70 % complete protein, chlorophyll, bioavailable iron. Choose flakes or fresh powder.
- Maca — Andean adaptogenic tuber, hormonal balance, sustained energy.
- Lucuma — Andean fruit with a caramel-maple taste, one of the most comforting and delicious foods there is. In energy balls, drinks or desserts, it is divine. A natural low-glycaemic sweetener.
- Hulled hemp seeds — a plug-and-play complete protein: nearly 10 g per 30 g (more than an egg), highly digestible edestin and albumin, ideal omega-3 to 6 ratio, magnesium, zinc. No soaking, no barrier. Sourced from Vehgro.
- Artisanal tahini — stone-ground sesame paste, calcium, omega-3 and 6, hazelnut flavour. As a variation: black sesame, or pumpkin-seed butter.
- A selection of salts — kala namak (Indian black salt, sulphurous, reminiscent of egg), blue salt, pink salt, smoked salt, fleur de sel, or simply sea water. Each amplifies a different flavour.
- Miso (quality, unpasteurised) — long fermentation, living probiotics, deep umami.
- Lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus) — the mushroom of memory and mental clarity.
- Bourbon vanilla — for relaxation and deep sweetness; dry-infused in a honey, it becomes a treasure.
- Saffron — for good mood and a luminous spirit; a few threads are enough.
- Raw monofloral honeys — for their high vibration; infused or fermented, they become augmented honeys.
- Rose — as a hydrosol, for its vibration that lifts and improves everything it touches.
- Chia seeds — the champion of the living gel. On contact with water, it wraps itself in a prebiotic mucilage that hydrates and feeds the microbiome. Its true gift is not its nutrition label (the whole seed passes intact) but this living fibre — and the bond with the living it revives: this is endozoochory, our body the carrier of seeds. Explore it in 'The Body as Carrier'. levegetalien.fr ↗
Suppliers
These are the houses I have met and trust. Quality is held by people, by gestures, by specific choices — not by a label.
- Vehgro — superfoods and functional mushrooms (lion's mane, reishi), hulled hemp seeds, tonic plants. vehgroshop.fr ↗
- Ingvi — a new gem joining my selection (superfoods and living treasures). ingvi.de ↗
- Jurassic Fruit — the most nutritious exotic fruits, rare honeys and the most indulgent date selection on the market. Delivery across Europe. jurassicfruit.com ↗
- Fruitstock — gastronomic fruits from Andalusia, rare varieties, avocado experts. fruitstock.fr ↗
- Épices Shira — deeply flavourful spices and natural enhancers: pure rose water, flowers, special salts, artisanal tahini. shira.fr ↗
- Workshop Issé — unpasteurised Japanese products (rare!): miso, soy sauces, living sake, and deeply vibrant teas. workshop-isse.fr ↗
- Nishikidori & le Comptoir des Poivres — seaweeds, exceptional soy sauce and miso, rare peppers, berries, vanillas, spices from around the world. nishikidori.com ↗
- L'Arbre à Café — coffees that sharpen the mind without rattling the body — clean, ceremonial. larbreacafe.com ↗
- Rrraw — raw chocolate supplier, innovative Parisian artisan. rrraw.fr ↗
- Biovie — focused on raw-food eating: sprouted seeds, raw nuts, exquisite freeze-dried fruits, fresh seaweeds, coconut by the palette. Free delivery code: virgile50 biovie.fr ↗
Books, tables, voices
To extend the reading, broaden the gaze, feel vibrant cooking through other hands and other voices.
- Yotam Ottolenghi — Plenty and Plenty More. Two brilliant vegetarian recipe books, full of flavour and colour. ottolenghi.co.uk ↗
- Marie Sophie L. — L'Instant Cru. My reference for flavoursome raw food. mariesophiel.com ↗
- Emma Sawko — Wild & the Moon. The spirit of beautiful Parisian vegan canteens. wildandthemoon.ae ↗
- Angèle Ferreux-Maeght & Alain Ducasse — Fêtes Végétales. A sumptuous book. leslibraires.fr ↗
- Sadhguru / Isha Foundation — A Taste of Well-Being. Recipes from the Isha Yoga Centre kitchen, lit by Sadhguru's insights on the art of eating and digestion. ishalife.sadhguru.org ↗
- Matt Amsden — Rawvolution. High raw and living cuisine, gourmet through and through. barnesandnoble.com ↗
- Farmacy Kitchen Cookbook — the book of London's Farmacy restaurant: plant-based cooking, beautiful and refined. hachette.co.uk ↗
- Restaurant 42 Degrés (Paris) — their new book, raw and living cuisine at its peak. amazon.fr ↗
- Garlone Bardel — Yoga Cookbook. Very effective, beautifully crafted. editions-ulmer.fr ↗
“Choosing an ingredient is shaking a grower's hand”
Virgile Escalant · chef-alchemist
The booklet
- Opening
The Intelligence of the Body
Precise and accurate knowledge
Intelligence is already here, within our body — perhaps the most sophisticated and subtle technology known.
- — I —
Energy
the inner flame
We do not eat — we burn stored light. The body is a solar machine running on two fuels.
- — II —
Proteins
the brick of the living — and its hidden origin
Meat does not contain proteins — it only carries them. The source is the plant.
- — III —
Minerals
the body's lattice
The body is a living geological formation — every mineral becomes an enzyme, a bone, a nerve, a thought.
- — IV —
Recipes & Tips
daily practice
The precious tips that elevate my cooking — soak, cook low, tune the umami, vary the oils, dose the acid, sweeten with plants — and the right tools, to wake the full intelligence of living matter.
- — V —
Ingredients & Suppliers
the chain of care
I share here my favourite foods and my gem suppliers — those that make plant-based food nourishing and delicious.
- — VI —
Ayurvedic Intelligence
six tastes, one fire
A science three thousand years old described, without a microscope, what biochemistry rediscovers today — every meal is a complete sensory pharmacology.
- — VII —
Macrobiotic Intelligence
the Qi of food — Japan & China
The cuisines of East Asia do not nourish matter alone: they set energy in motion. Eating becomes an art of balance — yin and yang, the living Ki, deep umami.
- — VIII —
The Intelligence of Biohacking
giving the body back its signals and its common sense
The humblest science adds nothing to us: it gives the body back the ancestral signals it has awaited for three hundred thousand years. The most powerful hack is a return.
- — 9 —
The Sattvic State
bliss, the joy of the present — to activate and nourish it
Our inner states are not our character: they are weather. And the only animal that can choose its own climate — through food, light, breath, sleep — is us.
- — 10 —
The Technology of Rest and Sleep
the great nightly workshop — and the art of recovery
Sleep is not lost time: it is the body's most active workshop. And rest, chosen, is not an absence — it is a regeneration. We do not force sleep: we invite it, by giving it back its signals.
- — 11 —
The State of Action
drive, strength, focus — to light it with intelligence
Action is not a matter of willpower alone: it is a chemistry the body mobilises — and that food lights or extinguishes. To understand this system is to stop enduring your energy and start steering it.
- — 12 —
Feminine Intelligence
nourishing the rhythms of women's bodies — cycle, transitions, carrying life
Women's bodies live in rhythms — the cycle of the month, the great transitions of a life. None is a problem to correct: they are intelligences to accompany. We treat nothing — we nourish the terrain, so that vitality returns on its own.