Alessandro Vitale (Spicy Moustache)

Alessandro Vitale is an urban farmer, and a popular YouTuber.

He has more than 1.4M subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘Spicy Moustache.’

Alessandro is also an author.

Introduction-

Alessandro Vitale was born on 5 June 1991 and is an Italian.

His hometown is Verona, Italy; he grew up here and was connected to nature and fresh food.

Alessandro has a sister.

As his parents were busy working, he grew up with his grandparents.

During his youth, Alessandro travelled a lot, thanks to the support of his parents.

Getting into gardening-

His grandmother was into trash cooking; his grandfather used to take him out for foraging and fishing.

Alessandro used to also spend time in his grandfather’s small urban garden in the town.

At a young age, he was introduced to gardening, especially growing fruits, and vegetables by his grandfather.

Alessandro’s grandparents greatly influenced him, and he learnt many things from them.

His grandfather taught him gardening, he also taught him about living soil, and nurturing plants.

Even though Alessandro was getting into gardening at a young age, later, he shifted his focus on school, then, tattoos; later, he left gardening on the side to focus on his career.

Education & career-

Alessandro studied Communication Sciences and Marketing from Università degli Studi di Verona (University of Verona), in Verona, Italy.

Then, in 2015, he moved to London.

From January 2016 to January 2019, Alessandro worked as a General Manager at ‘Old Blue Last Beer’ in London.

In 2018, he worked as a Site Foreman at Clearance Solutions Ltd.

Then, from February 2019 to October 2021, Alessandro worked as a Sale Manager at ‘No Regrets Studios’ (tattoo studios) in London.

From November 2021 to February 2022, he worked as a Digital Chef at KBOX Global in London.

Since March 2022, Alessandro has been self-employed as a Content Creator.

Inspiration to become a farmer-

After a few months of moving to London, he along with his roommate, went to a supermarket and bought chillies.

They started cooking the chillies; Alessandro sliced a green chilli and as it had seeds, this inspired him to grow food, and in 2015, he planted them in pots in his cramped balcony.

Also, at that time, he was missing having a connection with nature; so, he decided to take up gardening as a tribute to his grandfather and grow his own food.

In just a few weeks, Alessandro scaled up his garden and planted many plants; his whole space became saturated with plants, and he fell in love with gardening.

At that time, his garden wasn’t connected with water, and for the first nine months, he used to carry 20-litre cans up and down the stairs 10 times a day to water his garden.

Over the years, Alessandro collected more than 400 varieties of chillies; his favourite chilli variety is ‘Magma’ (a super-hot variety).

At that time, his garden was just 40 square meters (8 by 5 meters) in East London.

‘JADAM Organic Farming’ book, which describes an innovative organic farming technology of Korea, greatly helped Alessandro in his gardening journey.

Later, he moved from the balcony garden to a bigger garden, which has lots of different plants and a great biodiversity.

Gardening is his main passion, as Alessandro loves the process of starting with a seed to harvesting his own food and being healthy.

He turned his backyard (8 x 5 meters) into an urban garden and front yard (5 x 2 meters) into a vegetable garden, and his garden is located in Central London; he grows food round the year.

Alessandro’s grandfather had an urban garden in Italy and like him, he too has an urban garden in London.

He uses several techniques of permaculture, natural and organic farming, and vertical gardening.

Alessandro’s plans are to scale up the garden, have his own TV show, have a farm with an animal sanctuary, and organise tours into his garden to make people more connected to farming.

He recommends reading the ‘Red Hot Chilli Grower’ book.

Alessandro is also into zero waste cooking and foraging; thanks to his grandmother’s recipes, he has been able to cook his garden produce in creative ways.

Starting ‘Spicy Moustache’ & his book-

Even though Alessandro started his YouTube channel, ‘Spicy Moustache’ on 21 May 2019, he published his first video, ‘How To Grow unlimited basil’ only on 5 July 2020.

His objective of starting his YouTube channel has been to spread awareness of growing food, being self-reliant, and connecting people with nature; and to showcase that this process isn’t complicated.

As of November 2023, Alessandro has 1.41M subscribers on his YouTube channel, 809K followers on his Facebook page, and 2.8M followers on Instagram.

Alessandro earns from a variety of sources like advertisements, and ‘Super Thanks’ on his YouTube channel, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and merchandise; he also accepts donations on Patreon, and Buy Me a Coffee.

He films his videos with a Sony Alpha 7 III camera and also has a website.

On 11 April 2023, Alessandro published his book, ‘Rebel Gardening: A Beginner’s Handbook to Organic Urban Gardening.’

He got featured on BBC, Channel 5, The Times, The Guardian, Tamron Hall, etc.

Alessandro teaches ‘Urban Gardening with Alessandro Vitale’ course on Earthed.

Charles Dowding is his gardening hero, and he helps him with content creation for his YouTube channel and Instagram.

The story behind the name-

Previously, Alessandro used to eat a lot of spicy food.

And even though he used to clean his mouth and moustache after eating the spicy food, his fiancé could feel the spiciness when she gave him a kiss; so, she nicknamed him ‘Spicy Moustache.’

And Alessandro decided to brand his YouTube channel and social media handles as ‘Spicy Moustache.’

Unfortunately, he had to stop eating spicy food due to stomach issues, but the name ‘Spicy Moustache’ persisted.

Love for tattoos-

At 12, Alessandro developed a passion for tattoos; at that time, he used to buy tattoo magazines, and artwork; he was also into colour, shapes, and decorative things which could be on the body.

At 18, he got his first tattoo, and this greatly upset his father who didn’t speak to him for three months.

Later, his parents accepted his love for tattoos after they observed that he and his personality hasn’t changed much despite getting tattooed.

Personal life-

Alessandro has been in a relationship with Iasmina Green Pasca, she is his fiancée.

She is a tattoo artist and much like him, she too loves getting tattoos, and she helps him with his garden and content creation.

Alessandro’s father, Paolo Vitale, was a cyclist, and in October 2010, he suffered an accident while cycling, which left him paralysed from chest to bottom; but just after eight months, he resumed working in his office and cycling again with a hand bike.

Paolo is an adventurer; he also has a YouTube channel.

Alessandro is inspired by his father’s indomitable spirit.

He is a polyglot as he knows English, Italian, and Spanish.

Alessandro lives in London, England and is an ailurophile.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Alessandro Vitale?

Share with me in the comment section below.