The Kitchen Mycologist

I think the most significant realization I had reading and testing the recipes shared by the Fantastic Fungi community is that when it comes to cooking, mushrooms really don’t have anything to do with plants. We often lump mushrooms with vegetables, but they are very different organisms, and if you want to get the most out of cooking and eating them, it helps to understand them on their own terms. I think that’s why mushroom hunters tend to be good mushroom cooks: They are often accomplished amateur mycologists. Fungi are so different from other life-forms that eaters of mushrooms have their own name: plant eaters are vegetarians, meat eaters are carnivores, and mushroom eaters are mycophagists.