Page 42 - BSAM 2017 Q4

Pep: A chef, who in the wild olive has found an island of happiness.By Massimo Bandera, ItalyPhotos courtesy Massimo Bandera and Photo Studio Berin CompaniniPep Ferragut, a professional chef, is a great bonsai enthusiast.If you go to the island of Majorca you can savor authentic and exceptional Majorcan cuisine at his restaurant, Can Toni Moreno, in Port de Canoge, where he and his father serve fsh and lobsters. In the twenty years he has practiced bonsai, Pep has developed one of best Olive collections I know. Very refned in style, he seeks, above all, the mysterious beauty of yuugen, with subtle and elegant bonsai trees—in contrast to “Massive Material” —that allow for a more spiritual dimension of bonsai aesthetics. His works refect the territory of the island where the extreme Mediterranean climate has desert-like features, producing summer temperatures that force the olive trees to defoliate so that they can endure and survive until the rains return. “Ullastre” in the Majorcan language, is the name of a particular olive ecotype occurring in the hottest parts of the Mediterranean, much appreciated in the bonsai world because the result are the wonderful quality of the shari and jin, a bark texture of cube-like nuggets, and the tiny leaves that can only grow to 2 or 3 mm in length!