ZAFIA × CHEFS

ZAFIA ATELIER · Edition 01 · Chefs

Make something that doesn't exist yet.

Saffron from Herat, interpreted by Europe's creative kitchens and makers. Antwerp is the first chapter; the atelier is open to makers across Europe.

Apply for Edition 01 Discover the material

HERAT · HARVEST 2026/12 FOUNDING MAKERS

01 · Material

The material

Super Negin: the longest, deepest-coloured stigmas of the crocus, handpicked and hand-graded. We buy in Herat, from cooperatives we know and visit, with our partner Jaqut on the ground. Every delivery carries a single lot code.

Provenance passport

ORIGIN: Herat, Afghanistan
GRADE: Super Negin
HARVEST: 2026
LOT: L-2026-014
TRACEABILITY: Per batch, back to Herat
ISO 3632: Independent lab verification pending

Lab results will be published here as soon as they exist. Until then this page carries no certification claim.

See the provenance page for this lot

02 · Edition 01

1 KG

One harvest. Twelve founding chefs. No predetermined recipe.

Zafia is reserving part of its first harvest for experimentation rather than simply putting all of it on the market.

Twelve places

01OPEN
02OPEN
03OPEN
04OPEN
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08OPEN
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12OPEN

Edition 01 is now open. Invitations are in progress; no makers are confirmed yet.

03 · The invitation

How it works

01
Receive
A numbered Chef Edition from the current harvest.
02
Experiment
Three grams, no prescribed recipe.
03
Create
One interpretation that sounds like you.
04
Share
Selected work can be documented and featured by Zafia.
05
Build
Strong ideas may evolve into dinners, events, hospitality concepts or limited Zafia × Chef editions.

04 · Why join

What the atelier offers

01 / 04

Ingredient

Access to a distinctive, batch-traceable first harvest.

02 / 04

Authorship

Your name stays attached to what you create.

03 / 04

Platform

Selected work may be documented and presented through Zafia Atelier, journal, salons and events.

04 / 04

Opportunity

Strong concepts can be explored for paid collaborations, events or limited editions. If something becomes commercial, terms such as fee, margin, royalty or revenue share are agreed transparently in advance.

We are not looking for ambassadors. We are looking for collaborators.

05 · Herat

Behind every thread is expertise.

The flowers are picked before sunrise, in the short season the crocus gives. The three red stigmas are drawn from each flower by hand and graded by hand on length and colour. It takes 150 flowers to fill one gram.

Much of that picking and sorting work in Herat is done by women. It is skilled craft built on years of experience — not charity, but expertise we buy and pay for.

06 · Geography

Herat × Paris × Antwerp

HERAT

Harvest · Craft · Heritage

Where the ingredient begins.

PARIS

Culture · Storytelling · Expression

Where Zafia first presented itself publicly.

Read the Paris story

ANTWERP

Gastronomy · Design · Experimentation

Where we want to develop the next chef chapter.

07 · Founding makers

Founding makers

Twelve places in Edition 01. As makers join, they appear here with their city, kitchen or studio and their creation.

OPEN

Edition 01 is now open.

08 · Apply