Abdelhafid Bendahmane is a research director at the Paris Saclay Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS2-CNRS/INRA/Université Evry-Val d'Essonne/Université Paris-Diderot/Université Paris-Sud), which is part of INRA Île-de-France – Versailles-Grignon. His laboratory is half extraordinary garden and half Giuseppe Arcimboldo painting. In this universe filled with plants of agricultural interest, experienced researchers work with tomorrow's young sprouts, and state-of-the-art techniques are used to perform cutting-edge science. It is here that Bendahmane has built his international reputation in plant genomics and breeding. We spoke with him - a risk-taking researcher who has brilliantly combined fundamental and applied research who is also the recipient of INRA's 2018 Scientific Breakthrough Award.