Laura Zastrow
Brandon Reid remembers a time when it seemed like there were only two kinds of edible mushrooms: canned and button. And the latter was usually undercooked. “Growing up, people maybe had a negative idea about them,” he says. “But there’s a huge variety, there’s this massive world of the fungus family.”
Reid, executive chef at the Robinia Courtyard trio of restaurants, likes to feature several varieties of Wisconsin-grown mushrooms on his menus. At the farm-to-table Jardin, sauteed oyster, shiitake and crimini mushrooms play a starring role in a hearty dish with braised lentils and roasted vegetables. At Madison Tap, the same mushroom medley appears as a gourmet version of the deep-fried bar snack. “The goal going in was to make something really, really rich and meaty for vegans — those are flavors they don’t get all the time,” he says of the dishes.
As Reid puts it, mushrooms have been “on a mainstream blast” lately, popping up on menus in Madison and elsewhere and topping recent culinary trend lists. Hailed as the latest superfood, fungi are rich in vitamins and antioxidants and offer a natural, umami-packed meat alternative. Functional mushrooms, a category of fungi believed to have medicinal value, are becoming popular additives to beverages, broths and even soaps.
While many food fads tend to emerge on the coasts or in big cities, this particular trend is perfectly suited for Wisconsin. There are numerous mushroom growers in the state, and there’s also a long tradition of mushroom foraging. Hen-of-the-woods, lobster, lion’s mane — all can be found in Wisconsin’s forests, but the state is best known for morels. “That’s the Wisconsin specialty,” Reid says. “We grow them in abundance.”
Tami Lax, owner of Harvest, was a mushroom forager in the 1970s and 80s, and the restaurant is still known for its emphasis on serving wild mushrooms. “A lot of foragers in the area know Tami really well, and we like to reward their hard work,” says Josh Franz, sous chef at Harvest.
Mushroom foraging starts in spring and continues through late fall, with different varieties available at different points throughout the season. Springtime is best for morels, while autumn brings out puffballs and honey mushrooms. Farmers cultivate fungi year round, growing them in basements and cellars. Although there’s a certain romance to foraged food, cultivated mushrooms are just as tasty. Franz’s “favorite mushrooms” are the golden oysters grown at Indian Farm in Merrimac. “I like the earthiness, the mouthfeel, the umami that [mushrooms] can bring to any dish,” he says. “They’re just really versatile.”
Giovanni Novella, executive chef at Fresco, has come to appreciate the wealth of Wisconsin mushrooms since moving here from California seven years ago, and he agrees that the ingredient is having a moment. “This past seven years, on every menu, I see mushrooms popping up more and more,” he says. “And not just the standard mushrooms, [but also] more hard-to-find varieties.”
Recently Novella has been cooking with five different varieties of mushroom, including the distinctive Japanese enoki and yellow chanterelle. He likes combining different kinds of mushrooms for texture and experimenting with cooking techniques to bring out different flavors. “They can taste almost like a flower, very aromatic,” he says. Novella is a fan of pairing mushrooms with another protein — seafood in particular. On Fresco’s menu now is a seared scallop dish with fried enoki mushrooms in a lemon cream sauce.
Diners can find dishes enhanced by mushrooms all over Madison — and not just at locavore spots. There are few things more satisfying than the deep-fried mushrooms at the Paradise Lounge. On the east side, both Alchemy and the Harmony Bar and Grill serve tasty marinated portabella sandwiches, and the Green Owl blends mushrooms with tofu to create ingeniously meatless crab cakes.
Mushrooms add richness to healthy grain bowls at Forage Kitchen and Field Table. Gail ambrosius Chocolatier is famous for its shiitake truffle. Roasted mushrooms sourced from Vitruvian Farms in McFarland star in the appropriately named “Umami Pie” at Lucille. Expect to see more such dishes popping up in the future.
“Just based on how food trends are working, everyone is kind of looking for more healthy options,” Franz says. “As a substitute protein, mushrooms work really well.”
