Dessislava Dimitrova is a biologist, ethnobotanist and is associate professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She is also the coordinator of Slow Food in Bulgaria. In the last 18 years she manages to combine her academic work with her passion of food and traditions maintained by the local communities in Bulgaria and the Balkans. For her food is the quintessence of the wisdom of local people to transform available bio-cultural and environmental resources into intangible heritage.