Status
Publication
Description
"In the dark corners of America's forests grow culinary treasures. Chefs pay top dollar to showcase these elusive and beguiling ingredients on their menus. Whether dressing up a filet mignon with smoky morels or shaving luxurious white truffles over pasta, the most elegant restaurants across the country now feature an abundance of wild mushrooms. The mushroom hunters, by contrast, are a rough lot. They live in the wilderness and move with the seasons. Motivated by Gold Rush desires, they haul improbable quantities of fungi from the woods for cash. Langdon Cook embeds himself in this shadowy subculture, reporting from both rural fringes and big-city eateries with the flair of a novelist, uncovering along the way what might be the last gasp of frontier-style capitalism. Meet Doug, an ex-logger and crabber--now an itinerant mushroom picker trying to pay his bills and stay out of trouble; Jeremy, a former cook turned wild-food entrepreneur, crisscrossing the continent to build a business amid cutthroat competition; their friend Matt, an up-and-coming chef whose kitchen alchemy is turning heads; and the woman who inspires them all. Rich with the science and lore of edible fungi--from seductive chanterelles to exotic porcini--The Mushroom Hunters is equal parts gonzo travelogue and culinary history lesson, a rollicking, character-driven tour through a world that is by turns secretive, dangerous, and tragically American."--book jacket.… (more)
User reviews
I was excited to receive this book as I had been asked in the past for permission to search for mushrooms
Because of that experience I was thrilled to see this book in my mailbox. It is a great book with loads of information for the recreational seeker of mushrooms and even for professional buyers starting out. One lesson that I had right away that it is almost impossible to eke out a living from selling mushrooms to restaurants. You might be lucky someday and find a big patch that would yield many buckets but there are too many variables to count on it. Beside the thrill of finding sought after mushrooms and morels, the best job benefit seems that you are outside most of the time.
There was only one thing that wanted from this book and didn’t get. That was big color pictures of the mushrooms, morels and truffles. This would be necessary for a collector but it for a novice like me. I remember seeing so many different kinds of mushrooms growing down the slope that I have often wondered what kinds they were. I had always been afraid of picking poisonous ones.
Langdon Cook paints an interesting portrait of the people who get hooked on mushroom hunting. His mushroom hunters seem to be a special breed who love discovery of treasures and a deep love for nature. All is not well with them and that is one that makes these books fascinating. After you have read this book, you will be able to answer several questions like:
1.Where is the mushroom capital of the United States?
2.Why are mushroom hunters so secretive?
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in mushrooms and mushroom hunting.
I received it as a win from First Reads but that in no way influenced my thought s or feelings in this review.
Even if you don't like mushrooms you'd find some really interesting information that translates to much of the foraged food movement. Cook spends a lot of time with the people who go into the forests, searching for mushrooms that will pay them, usually, just enough to get by. The competition is fierce, sometimes intimidating, yet these are people who have to know nature very well to survive.