The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen
A Culinary Homage to Wild and Cultivated Mushrooms—with 120 Recipes
Chef Chad Hyatt’s cookbook The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen compiles a range of fascinating and practical information regarding the culinary versatility of wild and cultivated edible mushrooms.
A celebration of mushrooms, the fruiting body of underground networks of fungus, this book includes important advisories regarding the general safety of mushroom foraging. It notes that accuracy when identifying the edibility of mushrooms can be a literal matter of life or death; pertinent supplemental resources are provided. The text is also embellished by lush photographs of wild mushroom species including graceful, flaring yellow foots and stolid puffballs.
Among the featured mushrooms is the intriguing and amorphous shrimp-of-the-woods, which has a light, fishy-salty taste, as well as cultivated mushrooms including portabella, shiitake, and common white buttons. The best cooking and preservation methods for each mushroom are included: the versatile porcini can be sauteed, simmered, and grilled, while woody turkey tails are best in teas and broths, and morels, which often emerge from the ashes of forest fires, must be thoroughly cooked to avoid digestive troubles.
The text includes 120 diverse recipes for condiments, appetizers, entrees, and mushroom-enhanced desserts like Crimini Cream Pie. Some recipes pair mushrooms with meat or fish, as with Candy Cap Brined and Braised Pork Belly; others utilize mushrooms as vegetarian substitutions, as with Mixed Mushroom Paella and Mushroom Tartare. And the book is heightened by its narration, which evinces passion for wild mushrooms, as with a story of an early mushroom hunting experience: Hyatt and other foragers prowled the Mendocino woods at midnight; he wore a headlamp, searching for porcini.
Filled with vibrant flavors, the cookbook The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen celebrates the natural variety of gastronomical mycology.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
