’Shroom Service

I find few ingredients as exciting and delicious to cook as mushrooms. Whether wild or cultivated, exotic or the more common varieties, mushrooms are relatively easy to cook and add a unique umami flavor and texture to recipes. 

Mushroom experts tell me that mushroom cultivation is a comparatively  low-impact, low-resource form of food production. Most mushrooms growers use a regenerative approach that encourages biodiversity and topsoil health, which in turn produces healthy nutrient-dense foods. 

SELECTING ’SHROOMS 

Mushroom varieties number in the thousands, but only about 20 are commercially cultivated. I prefer picking my own at the farmers’ market or from bulk bins in grocery stores, versus pre-packaged. And I always choose whole over sliced. I look for dry (noy slimy) mushrooms that are plump and springy with firm, blemish-free exteriprs. Plastic-wrapped mushrooms are to be avoided unless the plastic is vented. I always store mushrooms loosely covered with room to aerate.While it’s OK to wash whole mushrooms like cremini, portabella, chanterelles or domestic white mushrooms right before cooking, they can absorb water like a sponge, so we chefs will gently clean them with a soft brush to remove any visible debris or dirt.