About us

Chef Eleonora Matarrese, Pikniq restaurant in Monza, 2014 (photo Ryck Valli)

Pikniq, founded in 2013, has been the first and only gastronomic laboratory and cozy restaurant in Italy to serve wild plant-based food to 360°.
Pikniq recipes, handmade and cooked with as much as possible zero miles food biological raw materials, originate from our ancestors’ tradition and are newly rethought in a more modern fashion.

Our customers’ favorite ones have been published in the book  La Cuoca Selvatica – Storie e Ricette per portare la Natura in Tavola, a landmark in Italy for the wild plant-based cooking enthusiasts.

Do you want to taste a wild experience and learn to identify wild plants, berries, roots, barks, plant bulbs, seaweeds?

Pikniq’s offer evolves and offers gourmet wild plant-based dishes, original recipes, naturally seasonal, also revisiting some of italian traditional dishes and made using ancient production techniques like fermentation.

Today Pikniq is a Bed & Breakfast with a home restaurant placed on the heart of Monte di Brianza, at a altitude of 710 m., in the old village Campsirago, and it offers:

  • overnight stay and breakfast
  • 360° advisory service on wild plant-based food;
  • foraging theory and practical courses;
  • plant-based cooking courses;
  • phytotherapy courses (held by a qualified herbalist);
  • courses for cosmetic making with wild herbs;
  • natural food preservation courses and preparation of wild food courses.

Pikniq’s soul is Eleonora Matarrese: chef, forager, writer, touristic guide and translator.

For more information send us an email.