MMS Meeting

MMS Meeting

When:
August 10, 2020 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
2020-08-10T19:00:00-05:00
2020-08-10T20:30:00-05:00
Where:
Virtual Meeting via Zoom

Chef Zachary Mazi presents
Mycophagy: The Art and Science of Cooking (and Eating) Mushrooms.

Growing up in Oregon, and doing time in Santa Cruz, CA (where the tomes of mushroom identification “Mushrooms Demystified” by David Arora & “Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast” by Christian Schwarz and Noah Siegel were written) has given me so many chances to explore, to find, collect, cook and utilize mushrooms. To say these little creatures have captured my heart and my imagination is a significant understatement!

As a chef, I want to know the how-to’s and don’t do’s of cooking mushrooms, from start to finish… all of them. For decades, the common mushroom cookbook offers suggestions for dishes, but have yet to dive into the chemistry of what makes up the flavor of the mushrooms we love. This includes understanding not just the volatile suites of chemicals that make up each individual mushroom, including a huge library of unique flavor compounds that affect our experience of both cooking and eating; but also physical properties they contain, such as mucilaginous qualities that act as thickeners, etc. We will explore the flavor chemistry of some of your favorite mushrooms, and present questions that still need answering!

FUN FACTS: Did you know that we use fungi in cooking without even realizing it? Every time bread rises, or we turn to our aged cheese, our miso, tempeh or saké, even our beer and wine, we are utilizing fungi in food production. Of course the monster porcini and the joy of the hunt captures the imagination, but if we actually gave fungus their rightful place in our cookbooks, I think we would surprise ourselves just how pervasive our use of this kingdom is without us even knowing! More about Zach’s research and recipes here: https://www.thefoodbender.com/support.

During this meeting we will provide ID assistance for any late summer mushrooms our members have to share with us.

A Zoom link to access this meeting along with instructions and password will be emailed to MMS members.

If you haven’t used Zoom before and don’t want to miss anything, you may want to click on the meeting link to download Zoom and familiarize yourself with it at least 15 minutes prior to the meeting.

This meeting is free and open to the public.  If you are not a member, contact Tim Clemens to get details on how to join this virtual meeting.  Please do so no later than an hour before the meeting.

How to join a Zoom meeting – You do not need a Zoom account, but you will need the Zoom app installed on your desktop or mobile device. You can either download the Zoom app in advance here. Or, you will be automatically prompted to download and install the Zoom app when you click on a meeting link for the first time. You can also join a test meeting at any time at https://zoom.us/test.