A beautifully written portrait of the people who collect and distribute wild mushrooms .
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 fast-paced, character-driven tour through a World that is by turns secretive, dangerous, and quintessentially American..
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.
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.
Motivated by Gold Rush desires, they haul improbable quantities of fungi from the woods for cash.
They live in the wilderness and move with the seasons.
The Mushroom hunters, by contrast, are a rough lot.
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 one of nature\'s last truly wild foods: the uncultivated, uncontrollable mushroom.
Chefs pay top dollar to showcase these elusive and enchanting ingredients on their menus.
Cook [delivers] vivid and cinematic scenes on every page.-- The Wall Street Journal In the dark corners of America\'s forests grow culinary treasures. . . Food and nature writing at its finest.--Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia A rollicking narrative . . .
A beautifully written portrait of the people who collect and distribute wild mushrooms
