Culinary Corner

Hanna Docampo Pham

While we wait for the upcoming spring kings and morels season to start, we have to reach into our dried stash of mushrooms to cook. From our very own MSSF Culinary Group, featured is a conversation with Natalie Wren. Natalie has worked as a chef, attended Culinary school, and has been an avid cook for over 20 years. She has prepared food for the MSSF Fungus Fair (she has made some “really killer egg salad” and mushroom sauces). Shout out to Natalie for this wonderful interview and the delicious food she has graciously cooked for MSSF and friends.

How did you become interested in cooking?
When I was a little kid, I noticed that my friends were eating orange mac and cheese out of a box. I thought that was so cool, because my parents never gave me Kraft mac and cheese, and I said something to my dad. He had already been through some training in the military to learn how to be a cook or a chef. He was like; “oh, that's yucky. Let me teach you how to make a cheese sauce.” And so, when I was probably four or five years old he taught me how to make a Mornay sauce, a traditional French sauce which is the basis of a lot of dishes, but also a great way to make mac and cheese. By the time I was seven years old, I was really good at whipping up a Mornay sauce. I made amazing mac and cheese, not mac and cheese out of a box. That was the entrance to cooking for me.

How did you become interested in mushrooms?
Back to my dad, three or four years after that I'm 10 or 11. He's had a lot more experience cooking, knew fancier cooking styles, and was cooking different kinds of food. He showed me how to make sauteed mushrooms in wine sauce. It was just grocery store mushrooms, garlic, some salt and pepper, and a little bit of white wine. We cooked them and added a little bit of cornstarch slurry to make kind of a glaze over the wine sauce. He assured me it was going to be the best thing I ever ate. I really liked it. I didn't think it was the best thing I ever ate, but I really thought it was great because before that I thought mushrooms were just disgusting. From there on, I started cooking more with mushrooms. As an adult I started eating in restaurants, where they had wild mushrooms. I also started reading more about mushrooms. I met Stephanie Wright from MSSF, and mentioned to her that I was interested in mushrooms in general and also cooking. She suggested that I go to the MSSF Fungus Fair. I didn't do it for a couple of years, I kept forgetting, but one year, I just decided that I was just going to join the club and was going to volunteer at the Fungus Fair. After that, I became totally addicted to mushrooms, everything about them. It's so amazing, especially hunting.

Favorite mushroom?
You know, a lot of people ask that. I mean, I asked that of everybody. And you know, people have strong opinions. I think it changes with the season; what am I finding a lot of right now? Like I don't know, finding a boatload of black trumpets makes it my favorite, finding three big fat porky porcinis makes that my favorite. I think I really like them all. It depends on when you ask me. Today it’s rehydrated yellowfoot. It’s my favorite mushroom today because it has made my house smell good from the moment hot water hits the dry yellowfoot. The smell while I cooked it was really nice and the mushroom I sampled was delicious. The best part is that I made deviled eggs with the mushrooms for some friends who love fungi as much as I do.

Favorite dish with mushrooms?
I really like making mushrooms into a sauce, especially if it's a mushroom that appreciates a longer cooking time. Because it's sort of a comfort food, sauces are comforting. They go on everything, you can put them on eggs, potatoes, toast, or whatever. But also the longer cooking time, the more nutritious the mushrooms become. Longer cooking time helps you break down the cell walls and you are able to release all the awesomeness in the mushroom. A slow-cook sauce is probably my favorite dish. But ask me next week, it might be mac and cheese with mushrooms or you know, something else. I love them all a lot.

What do mushrooms add to dishes?
If you're going to make something like a mushroom sauce, of course, it pairs with lots of different things. If you're going to make mushroom soup, you're having it all by itself. Mushrooms could be the star of risotto, pasta, or salad. Mushrooms are definitely capable of being the star of a dish. I think mushrooms are maybe best in terms of like, I don't know, acceptance by the general eating population; I think they're best accepted as a supporting character. Because people, you know, have weird things about the texture or like, “it's a mushroom”. But I've been having mushrooms in food that I feed my kid for 20 years, and they have no idea how many pounds of mushrooms they've eaten, because I will shred them and make them into meatballs, so it’s mixed with some meat. Or, I’ll shred them, cook them, and mix them with scrambled eggs. They can't tell, but they like the flavor, right? Eventually, they realize there are mushrooms in there. And that's what helps lead them into maybe actually eating a mushroom on a pizza or whatever. Overall, mushrooms are great flavor enhancers. I think that's one of the reasons we like to eat mushrooms in general. They have a lot of glutamate, and that's a really nice palette thing. Whether or not you taste the actual mushroom flavor and can appreciate that or just like; “Wow, that is the best meatball I ever had” or, “Oh man, you know that soup was so great”. And you know, they have no idea. As soon as it has mushrooms, it's just awesome flavored, right? It's almost like when you put MSG, that's monosodium glutamate. There's glutamate in mushrooms, and that's part of what makes them amazing tasting.

Especially if you're new to cooking mushrooms, is it better to start with cooking mushrooms in recipes or on their own?
I think it's good to get to know what the mushroom itself tastes like. Then, you can figure out how you can experiment later. Recipes are nice because somebody has already done that experimentation for you. But if you don't actually personally know what the mushroom tastes like, it might, depending on the recipe, be hard to tease that flavor out of the other flavors in the recipe. It might be that the mushroom is actually turning out to be a supporting character, not the star of the show. So for me, any kind of mushroom I've never had before I just start off by doing a cook in some butter or ghee, and cooking that mushroom by itself with a little bit of water to get it to simmer and add some salt. Let it cool down, don't eat it hot, don't eat it cold, but eat it at roughly room temperature. I think that really helps you understand the flavor profile, and that makes it easier to experiment. But if you don't have a natural urge to experiment, start off with a recipe and see if you like it at all.

What is your go-to method for cooking mushrooms?
Dry sauteing with wine was the way I cooked mushrooms for a long time until I started hanging out with MSSF and reading more about it. It's a really good place to start because it pretty much guarantees a delicious outcome. My current go-to depends on whether it's a dried mushroom or a fresh mushroom, but I tend to get it going and try to cook off a lot of the moisture. And then depending on which way I'm going to go, I either add butter and incorporate it or I add water and simmer for a long time. I like at this point, for the most part, precooking any mushroom that I'm going to add to any other recipe; I like to cook that mushroom by itself first.

Dry mushroom versus fresh mushrooms?
I think fresh mushrooms are less mysterious and more accessible generally, in stores. I think that would be a good place to start. And starting with the basic Agaricus bisporus, that's basically the white button, and what people call Cremini. And also, the more mature version, which is the Portabella. If you're really new to mushrooms, you could start by cooking those three, the way I described earlier, with just a little bit of butter, and just try to enjoy the mushroom itself. From there, you'll know if you like it. As your skills develop in terms of incorporating those readily available mushrooms into recipes, then try going into dried. For me, dried mushrooms just seemed inaccessible. Like I had nobody to tell me what to do, like, what do you do with a dried mushroom? Do you put it in your soup? I didn't know what to do at all. And back when I first was cooking hardcore 30 years ago, the Internet was not something you could rely on for that kind of information. It's different now, but I would say start off with the three basics, the ones that I mentioned fresh, and saute them and bake them, and take it from there.

What mistakes have you made when cooking with mushrooms?
Undercooking and overcooking! Before I started finding wild mushrooms, I was buying Shiitakes, Criminis, or Portobellos. I was always hesitant to cook them very much because they would shrink, right? I was like, “Oh, you should just quickly, flash saute them and not lose the content”, not understanding that they might maintain volume, but they didn't really increase in flavor. And they also were not digestible, really. Then I started looking at buying wild mushrooms and experimenting with that and reading more about wild mushrooms as I started hunting for them. Everything you read says, Oh, you need to cook them for a long time. Well, you know, define a long time and nobody does. They say to cook them for a long time because they want to be well cooked. I started doing that; I started cooking things longer and at different heats, like high heat, or even boiling mushrooms. Boiling mushrooms is amazing. I had no idea; it makes the texture weird, but it releases the flavor. So once I learned not to undercook or way overcook, by burning, the flavors are so much better. And I don't have a tummy ache. I used to eat raw button mushrooms when I was a teenager. I didn't know; I just thought that was like a cool thing. It came in this vegetarian taco I used to order, but then my stomach would hurt afterward. I never really put two and two together, and I think it was because it wasn't digestible as a raw mushroom. So to me, an undercooked mushroom is the same as a raw mushroom– not digestible.

What advice do you have to people new to cooking mushrooms?
I would say cook longer. I mean, in every way, you could do a dry saute, you could fry it with a little bit of butter or ghee, simmer it, boil it, all of those things. All of these things are going to increase the flavor compounds. And they're also going to break the cell walls down so that you can release whatever is in there. After cooking with porcini spore tubs, I really feel like a lot of flavor is in the reproductive surface of whatever mushroom you have. So if you're cooking a portabella, don't scrape the gills off. That's the reproductive surface. That's where the spores are coming from. Leaving it on there might make your stuff look black and weird, but it probably will increase the flavor. Experiment a little bit, you know, more than you have, cook it more than you think you should without burning it. That's the fine line. And wait to add the fat, however you cook it normally. You could start with a little bit of fat, let it boil down like people say, kind of turn it into a dry saute. Then just keep it moist, keep a low simmer on it, and see what happens. I've had really great results that way, and then you finish it with the tiniest bit of butter, and it tastes like you cooked it with a whole stick of butter. Don't be afraid to cook mushrooms for a long time, which I think is the main thing that will enhance everybody's mushroom experience.

Morel Cream Sauce Recipe
By Natalie Wren

For 1 gallon approximately

7 ounces dried morels
2-2.25 gallons morel rehydration water
shallot
garlic
brandy
salt
pepper
wheat flour roux made with whole butter
ghee for sauteing shallot and garlic
whole cream
thyme or savory or other hardy herbs that you like with morels (optional)

Rehydrate mushrooms in way more water than you might normally use. These mushrooms are going to cook for a really long time, so the extra liquid is needed (probably an hour or more this long cooking time will maximize digestibility/nutritional access/assimilation and also maximize the flavor). For this large batch, approximately one gallon when done, it was a bit over the top. For 7 ounces of dried morels, I rehydrated in 2-2.25 gallons of water.

When the morels are plump and floating, agitate and squeeze the intact morels to pump and flush out anything inside. Remove mushrooms, save the liquid and repeat the process in a smaller quantity of clean water so that most or all grit and detritus is rinsed out. You can skip these steps if you like grit, rocks, bugs, twigs, duff, charcoal, dust, or other dental surprise attacks in your morels. Discard the second batch of water. Let the liquid settle from the first soak. Pour the liquid, minus the dregs, into another container. Simmer for an hour, partially covered, and reduce to around 50%.

In another pan, preferably large enough for the final sauce quantity, use medium heat and saute shallot, garlic, and herbs in ghee until translucent and very fragrant. Cook up to the point of caramelization. Now it is the time to deglaze with a little bit of whatever you have on hand: brandy is my preferred choice, let your taste and on hand stock guide you. White wine is ok, too. A peaty scotch might be interesting. Flambe if you like a little drama, continue to reduce until fairly dry.

Add equal amounts of both butter and flour to shallot/garlic and whisk to mix to make roux. Whisk and cook until the raw flour smell is gone and the mix is nicely bubbly and frothy. Add strained morels, I like to salt morels at this point, and reduce the soaking liquid. Continue to cook until the mixture starts to noticeably thicken. If it doesn't thicken adequately, you can continue to reduce while stirring. When ready, add cream and simmer to desired thickness. Salt and pepper to taste. Eat on everything.

Culinary Group News

The last Culinary Group event was themed, "In Sarah's Kitchen with Master Mushroom Chefs.” It was held on zoom on March 7th, hosted by Sarah Ruhs, a Culinary Group member. There were many “mushroom celebrities”, including “Julia Champignon” and “Morchella Hazan”. There were a lot of good laughs, and everyone had a good time.

"Morchella Hazan" at the Culinary Group event, In Sarah's Kitchen with Master Mushroom Chefs"
Photo Credit: Maria Pham

Monday, April 4th, 2022 Culinary Group Potluck:
Theme: Nothing But Mushrooms
Dinner Captain: Carol Reed

April's Culinary Group dinner event will be an alfresco (outdoor), in-person potluck on April 4th on the Hall of Flowers patio in Golden Gate Park. Open to Culinary Group members and their guests. Bring a dish with mushrooms (or decorate yourself, or your table, with a mushroom theme). Arrive at 6:00 p.m. eating begins at 7:00 p.m., after a short business meeting. No registration is necessary, and there is no dinner fee. Consistently with City guidelines, only those who show proof of full vaccination are permitted to enter the premises. (Full vaccination requires full primary series plus booster, if qualified.)

Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park
9th and Lincoln
San Francisco, California

The MSSF Culinary Group is open to all MSSF members who are interested in the gastronomical aspects of mushrooming as a participatory cooking group. Due to the current public health situation, the Culinary Group is holding monthly outdoor potlucks for small groups. Gatherings are generally held on the first Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the San Francisco County Fair Building (Hall of Flowers). Members of MSSF and the Culinary Group, and their guests, are invited to attend.


Culinary Corner Hanna Docampo Pham While we wait for the upcoming spring kings and morels season to start, we have to reach into our dried stash of mushrooms to cook. From our very own MSSF Culinary Group, featured is a conversation with Natalie Wren. Natalie has worked as a chef, attended Culinary school, and has been an avid cook for over 20 years. She has prepared food for the MSSF Fungus Fair (she has made some “really killer egg salad” and mushroom sauces). Shout out to Natalie for this wonderful interview and the delicious food she has graciously cooked for MSSF and friends. *How did you become interested in cooking?* When I was a little kid, I noticed that my friends were eating orange mac and cheese out of a box. I thought that was so cool, because my parents never gave me Kraft mac and cheese, and I said something to my dad. He had already been through some training in the military to learn how to be a cook or a chef. He was like; “oh, that's yucky. Let me teach you how to make a cheese sauce.” And so, when I was probably four or five years old he taught me how to make a Mornay sauce, a traditional French sauce which is the basis of a lot of dishes, but also a great way to make mac and cheese. By the time I was seven years old, I was really good at whipping up a Mornay sauce. I made amazing mac and cheese, not mac and cheese out of a box. That was the entrance to cooking for me. *How did you become interested in mushrooms?* Back to my dad, three or four years after that I'm 10 or 11. He's had a lot more experience cooking, knew fancier cooking styles, and was cooking different kinds of food. He showed me how to make sauteed mushrooms in wine sauce. It was just grocery store mushrooms, garlic, some salt and pepper, and a little bit of white wine. We cooked them and added a little bit of cornstarch slurry to make kind of a glaze over the wine sauce. He assured me it was going to be the best thing I ever ate. I really liked it. I didn't think it was the best thing I ever ate, but I really thought it was great because before that I thought mushrooms were just disgusting. From there on, I started cooking more with mushrooms. As an adult I started eating in restaurants, where they had wild mushrooms. I also started reading more about mushrooms. I met Stephanie Wright from MSSF, and mentioned to her that I was interested in mushrooms in general and also cooking. She suggested that I go to the MSSF Fungus Fair. I didn't do it for a couple of years, I kept forgetting, but one year, I just decided that I was just going to join the club and was going to volunteer at the Fungus Fair. After that, I became totally addicted to mushrooms, everything about them. It's so amazing, especially hunting. *Favorite mushroom?* You know, a lot of people ask that. I mean, I asked that of everybody. And you know, people have strong opinions. I think it changes with the season; what am I finding a lot of right now? Like I don't know, finding a boatload of black trumpets makes it my favorite, finding three big fat porky porcinis makes that my favorite. I think I really like them all. It depends on when you ask me. Today it’s rehydrated yellowfoot. It’s my favorite mushroom today because it has made my house smell good from the moment hot water hits the dry yellowfoot. The smell while I cooked it was really nice and the mushroom I sampled was delicious. The best part is that I made deviled eggs with the mushrooms for some friends who love fungi as much as I do. *Favorite dish with mushrooms?* I really like making mushrooms into a sauce, especially if it's a mushroom that appreciates a longer cooking time. Because it's sort of a comfort food, sauces are comforting. They go on everything, you can put them on eggs, potatoes, toast, or whatever. But also the longer cooking time, the more nutritious the mushrooms become. Longer cooking time helps you break down the cell walls and you are able to release all the awesomeness in the mushroom. A slow-cook sauce is probably my favorite dish. But ask me next week, it might be mac and cheese with mushrooms or you know, something else. I love them all a lot. *What do mushrooms add to dishes?* If you're going to make something like a mushroom sauce, of course, it pairs with lots of different things. If you're going to make mushroom soup, you're having it all by itself. Mushrooms could be the star of risotto, pasta, or salad. Mushrooms are definitely capable of being the star of a dish. I think mushrooms are maybe best in terms of like, I don't know, acceptance by the general eating population; I think they're best accepted as a supporting character. Because people, you know, have weird things about the texture or like, “it's a mushroom”. But I've been having mushrooms in food that I feed my kid for 20 years, and they have no idea how many pounds of mushrooms they've eaten, because I will shred them and make them into meatballs, so it’s mixed with some meat. Or, I’ll shred them, cook them, and mix them with scrambled eggs. They can't tell, but they like the flavor, right? Eventually, they realize there are mushrooms in there. And that's what helps lead them into maybe actually eating a mushroom on a pizza or whatever. Overall, mushrooms are great flavor enhancers. I think that's one of the reasons we like to eat mushrooms in general. They have a lot of glutamate, and that's a really nice palette thing. Whether or not you taste the actual mushroom flavor and can appreciate that or just like; “Wow, that is the best meatball I ever had” or, “Oh man, you know that soup was so great”. And you know, they have no idea. As soon as it has mushrooms, it's just awesome flavored, right? It's almost like when you put MSG, that's monosodium glutamate. There's glutamate in mushrooms, and that's part of what makes them amazing tasting. *Especially if you're new to cooking mushrooms, is it better to start with cooking mushrooms in recipes or on their own?* I think it's good to get to know what the mushroom itself tastes like. Then, you can figure out how you can experiment later. Recipes are nice because somebody has already done that experimentation for you. But if you don't actually personally know what the mushroom tastes like, it might, depending on the recipe, be hard to tease that flavor out of the other flavors in the recipe. It might be that the mushroom is actually turning out to be a supporting character, not the star of the show. So for me, any kind of mushroom I've never had before I just start off by doing a cook in some butter or ghee, and cooking that mushroom by itself with a little bit of water to get it to simmer and add some salt. Let it cool down, don't eat it hot, don't eat it cold, but eat it at roughly room temperature. I think that really helps you understand the flavor profile, and that makes it easier to experiment. But if you don't have a natural urge to experiment, start off with a recipe and see if you like it at all. *What is your go-to method for cooking mushrooms?* Dry sauteing with wine was the way I cooked mushrooms for a long time until I started hanging out with MSSF and reading more about it. It's a really good place to start because it pretty much guarantees a delicious outcome. My current go-to depends on whether it's a dried mushroom or a fresh mushroom, but I tend to get it going and try to cook off a lot of the moisture. And then depending on which way I'm going to go, I either add butter and incorporate it or I add water and simmer for a long time. I like at this point, for the most part, precooking any mushroom that I'm going to add to any other recipe; I like to cook that mushroom by itself first. *Dry mushroom versus fresh mushrooms?* I think fresh mushrooms are less mysterious and more accessible generally, in stores. I think that would be a good place to start. And starting with the basic Agaricus bisporus, that's basically the white button, and what people call Cremini. And also, the more mature version, which is the Portabella. If you're really new to mushrooms, you could start by cooking those three, the way I described earlier, with just a little bit of butter, and just try to enjoy the mushroom itself. From there, you'll know if you like it. As your skills develop in terms of incorporating those readily available mushrooms into recipes, then try going into dried. For me, dried mushrooms just seemed inaccessible. Like I had nobody to tell me what to do, like, what do you do with a dried mushroom? Do you put it in your soup? I didn't know what to do at all. And back when I first was cooking hardcore 30 years ago, the Internet was not something you could rely on for that kind of information. It's different now, but I would say start off with the three basics, the ones that I mentioned fresh, and saute them and bake them, and take it from there. *What mistakes have you made when cooking with mushrooms?* Undercooking and overcooking! Before I started finding wild mushrooms, I was buying Shiitakes, Criminis, or Portobellos. I was always hesitant to cook them very much because they would shrink, right? I was like, “Oh, you should just quickly, flash saute them and not lose the content”, not understanding that they might maintain volume, but they didn't really increase in flavor. And they also were not digestible, really. Then I started looking at buying wild mushrooms and experimenting with that and reading more about wild mushrooms as I started hunting for them. Everything you read says, Oh, you need to cook them for a long time. Well, you know, define a long time and nobody does. They say to cook them for a long time because they want to be well cooked. I started doing that; I started cooking things longer and at different heats, like high heat, or even boiling mushrooms. Boiling mushrooms is amazing. I had no idea; it makes the texture weird, but it releases the flavor. So once I learned not to undercook or way overcook, by burning, the flavors are so much better. And I don't have a tummy ache. I used to eat raw button mushrooms when I was a teenager. I didn't know; I just thought that was like a cool thing. It came in this vegetarian taco I used to order, but then my stomach would hurt afterward. I never really put two and two together, and I think it was because it wasn't digestible as a raw mushroom. So to me, an undercooked mushroom is the same as a raw mushroom– not digestible. *What advice do you have to people new to cooking mushrooms?* I would say cook longer. I mean, in every way, you could do a dry saute, you could fry it with a little bit of butter or ghee, simmer it, boil it, all of those things. All of these things are going to increase the flavor compounds. And they're also going to break the cell walls down so that you can release whatever is in there. After cooking with porcini spore tubs, I really feel like a lot of flavor is in the reproductive surface of whatever mushroom you have. So if you're cooking a portabella, don't scrape the gills off. That's the reproductive surface. That's where the spores are coming from. Leaving it on there might make your stuff look black and weird, but it probably will increase the flavor. Experiment a little bit, you know, more than you have, cook it more than you think you should without burning it. That's the fine line. And wait to add the fat, however you cook it normally. You could start with a little bit of fat, let it boil down like people say, kind of turn it into a dry saute. Then just keep it moist, keep a low simmer on it, and see what happens. I've had really great results that way, and then you finish it with the tiniest bit of butter, and it tastes like you cooked it with a whole stick of butter. Don't be afraid to cook mushrooms for a long time, which I think is the main thing that will enhance everybody's mushroom experience. Morel Cream Sauce Recipe By Natalie Wren For 1 gallon approximately 7 ounces dried morels 2-2.25 gallons morel rehydration water shallot garlic brandy salt pepper wheat flour roux made with whole butter ghee for sauteing shallot and garlic whole cream thyme or savory or other hardy herbs that you like with morels (optional) Rehydrate mushrooms in way more water than you might normally use. These mushrooms are going to cook for a really long time, so the extra liquid is needed (probably an hour or more this long cooking time will maximize digestibility/nutritional access/assimilation and also maximize the flavor). For this large batch, approximately one gallon when done, it was a bit over the top. For 7 ounces of dried morels, I rehydrated in 2-2.25 gallons of water. When the morels are plump and floating, agitate and squeeze the intact morels to pump and flush out anything inside. Remove mushrooms, save the liquid and repeat the process in a smaller quantity of clean water so that most or all grit and detritus is rinsed out. You can skip these steps if you like grit, rocks, bugs, twigs, duff, charcoal, dust, or other dental surprise attacks in your morels. Discard the second batch of water. Let the liquid settle from the first soak. Pour the liquid, minus the dregs, into another container. Simmer for an hour, partially covered, and reduce to around 50%. In another pan, preferably large enough for the final sauce quantity, use medium heat and saute shallot, garlic, and herbs in ghee until translucent and very fragrant. Cook up to the point of caramelization. Now it is the time to deglaze with a little bit of whatever you have on hand: brandy is my preferred choice, let your taste and on hand stock guide you. White wine is ok, too. A peaty scotch might be interesting. Flambe if you like a little drama, continue to reduce until fairly dry. Add equal amounts of both butter and flour to shallot/garlic and whisk to mix to make roux. Whisk and cook until the raw flour smell is gone and the mix is nicely bubbly and frothy. Add strained morels, I like to salt morels at this point, and reduce the soaking liquid. Continue to cook until the mixture starts to noticeably thicken. If it doesn't thicken adequately, you can continue to reduce while stirring. When ready, add cream and simmer to desired thickness. Salt and pepper to taste. Eat on everything. Culinary Group News The last Culinary Group event was themed, "In Sarah's Kitchen with Master Mushroom Chefs.” It was held on zoom on March 7th, hosted by Sarah Ruhs, a Culinary Group member. There were many “mushroom celebrities”, including “Julia Champignon” and “Morchella Hazan”. There were a lot of good laughs, and everyone had a good time. "Morchella Hazan" at the Culinary Group event, In Sarah's Kitchen with Master Mushroom Chefs" Photo Credit: Maria Pham Monday, April 4th, 2022 Culinary Group Potluck: Theme: Nothing But Mushrooms Dinner Captain: Carol Reed April's Culinary Group dinner event will be an alfresco (outdoor), in-person potluck on April 4th on the Hall of Flowers patio in Golden Gate Park. Open to Culinary Group members and their guests. Bring a dish with mushrooms (or decorate yourself, or your table, with a mushroom theme). Arrive at 6:00 p.m. eating begins at 7:00 p.m., after a short business meeting. No registration is necessary, and there is no dinner fee. Consistently with City guidelines, only those who show proof of full vaccination are permitted to enter the premises. (Full vaccination requires full primary series plus booster, if qualified.) Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park 9th and Lincoln San Francisco, California The MSSF Culinary Group is open to all MSSF members who are interested in the gastronomical aspects of mushrooming as a participatory cooking group. Due to the current public health situation, the Culinary Group is holding monthly outdoor potlucks for small groups. Gatherings are generally held on the first Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the San Francisco County Fair Building (Hall of Flowers). Members of MSSF and the Culinary Group, and their guests, are invited to attend.
Mycena News - April 2022