Fungi Dinner
My cousin Patrick is a chef in Quebec. He came to visit me last summer and one morning suggested that he could make dinner so we proceeded to Granville Market and wandered up and down the aisles between the stalls while he crafted recipes of the most enticing ingredients available that day.
After dinner we started talking about our practices. He was undergoing a career transition due to a life threatening illness caused by a rare fungus and I was grappling with the direction of my practice after a residency in Holland.
We went our separate ways and I began a course of research focused on human and fungi relations. During this time, I participated in a number of events and fieldtrips organized by the Vancouver Mycological Society. These brought together the amateur mycologist’s interests in the culinary, medicinal and aesthetic aspects of fungi. Over time, I realized that I wanted to create something in the locus of fungi, culinary events, science and art. Something that created new compositions between these practices and the forces at play in them.
I contacted Patrick and we started discussing the potential of a solely fungi dinner. I told him that I was really interested in the sensory aspects of fungi as food. From there he began to design a series of eight courses drawing from a wide range of available mushrooms and cultural influences.
When I received the recipes, I immediately began shopping. This became an activity in itself as I went from shop to shop in search of rare ingredients. One major coup was to find this one-pound portion of a wild oyster mushroom in the Granville market.
Once I had the majority of the ingredients I began to prepare the recipes in the order set out by Patrick. Some recipes such as this cream-based…. mushroom lasagna with rosemary and thyme which required about three hours of preparation and an equal amount of time to cook in a water bath. I had to set my alarm for 3:30 in the morning so I could place it in the refrigerator after it had cooled.  For days, I was immersed in a world of measurements, temperatures, tastes and textures.
After three days of food preparation, I wrapped everything up to take to Randy Lee Cutler’s kitchen where I was hosting the fungi dinner. At 7:00 on Saturday everyone arrived. The 10 guests included friends and colleagues from Emily Carr as well as the Vancouver Mycological Society.
The evening was set up for the eight courses to be served at intervals starting with the roasted mushroom salad with tarragon dressing. This was the menu for the evening….
You will notice, here that I also created intervals where I invited participants to speak about their relations with fungi.
Patrick was brought in via Skype and I used an external camera to make all of the diners visible to him. I invited him to talk about his inspiration for the dinner and the challenges of creating an all fungi menu. He spoke about wanting everyone to experience the unique flavour and taste of each type of mushroom as opposed to the usual garlic and butter treatment that tends to make the flavours rather uniform. He also wanted to draw upon the different cultural uses of mushrooms in cuisine. In a few of the Asian influenced dishes he used mushrooms such as enoki and black fungi, which have a different range of flavours than mushrooms used in European cuisine. Everyone had an opportunity to ask him questions about the menu, cooking with mushrooms, collecting mushrooms and even the use of mushrooms in the restaurant industry.
Through the evening I remained in the kitchen preparing and plating each course. This was a demanding task that I had never experienced before. Patrick, warned me about the stress of wondering if people would like the food and the pressure to have everything come out in a timely manner. Luckily, Henry’s two daughters took an interest in the activity of the kitchen and decided to help me plate and serve each dish.
Their generosity reminded me of the unpredictability of the event. While one brings forces into play unexpected and uncertain relations emerge. We became a compound body talking about the preparation of the food, the ingredients amidst the intensity of trying to plate and serve.
Mid-way through the menu, Ken set up his presentation, which included his own photographs of fungi from various forays. He gave an introduction to mycology and his amateur interest in the area.  He spoke about species classification, physical characteristics and reproduction. All while dinner guests asked questions including my sous-chefs.
After Ken finished, everyone continued eating. Juliet chose to speak while seated at the table. Her interest is in the medicinal aspects of mushrooms and how in eastern cultures that intersects with cuisine. She passed around various types of medicinal mushrooms including reishi while discussing the medicinal properties.
And still the courses came out. The snippets of conversation I could make out were about art, mushrooms, biodiversity and speculative fiction.
At the end of the evening I sat and enjoyed a glass of wine with everyone. We talked about the dinner…while my sous-chefs slept…and at the end of the evening everyone went home with a belly full of mushrooms having engaged with the aesthetics of existence.