The Big Sur Chanterelle
Cook Off launches an enchanted
tradition.
By Mark C. Anderson
Witch’s butter. False turkey tail. Destroying
angel. Elfin saddle. They spring forth from rich
soil in shady pockets of our most fantastic
local forests&emdash;from the base of redwood,
beneath the protection of poison oak, and along
trunks of oak. Some glow vibrant orange, sunset
yellow or outlandish red. Their earthy perfume
can give master chefs cause to gurgle like happy
babies; their flavors can give eaters a serious
case of the eyes-rolling-back-in-head-itis. If
it all sounds a little bit like magic, that
wouldn’t be far off. In fact, the pilgrims who
reported to the Big Sur Lodge for the first ever
Big Sur Chanterelle Cook Off last
weekend&emdash;stretching from a Friday kick-off
party seasoned with crab cakes and fire-dancing
to a chanterelle-and-egg breakfast on
Sunday&emdash;will tell you that the magic of
wild mushrooms is manifold.
“The mushroom contains a component of rocket
fuel.”
Spore in point: Witch’s butter, a rubbery
orange fungus also known as Tremella
mesenterica, is actually a natural health
tonic&emdash;in fact, mushrooms are being
researched more and more for uses in modern
medicine. “It’s like a mushroom chewing gum with
strong medicinal powers,” says Phil Carpenter, a
longtime officer for the Santa Cruz-based Fungus
Federation and point man for one of Saturday’s
forest mushroom walks. “It’s an immune response
enhancer.” Carpenter leads about 30 people
though the redwood canopy to Pfeiffer Falls on
one of three separate forays into Big Sur
forests to uncover different fungi. The group
includes members who have come from as far away
as greater Toronto, Canada.
At another pause, Carpenter spotlights one of
his favorite forest natives, one that looks like
a piece of twisted brown leather on a stem. “I
call it the Magyver mushroom,” he says. “It
contains a volatile toxin that’s a component of
rocket fuel. I could just see MacGyver stuffing
a bunch of these into a tube to blow something
up.”
The MacGyver mushroom, a cousin of the elfin
saddle, goes into the basket for later panel
attention. In too go some “sewer gas” mushrooms,
some colorful and stinky samples that grow on
wood, and witch’s hat, a little cutie that
bruises black. They’ll be joined there by sticky
caps, waxy caps and candy caps for good
measure.
Along the way, the general camaraderie of the
group casts its own spell. Toni Gillespie and
her husband Mark, also of the Fungus Federation,
are amongst the people as charmed by the wild
mushroom’s entourage as they are the mushrooms
themselves. “When my husband got into mushrooms
I thought, ‘That’s weird,’ ” Toni says. “Then
the people seemed so cool. And they know how to
eat really, really well.”
Soon the Gillespies are talking candy cap
recipes with another forest explorer, speaking
of soaking the dried caps in brandy and making
cookies or ice cream. As the day progresses, the
talk of taste begins to mushroom.
At the panel discussion, Jack Czarnecki, the
chef/author of A Cook’s Book of Mushrooms, preps
palates with talk of cooking tips. (But not
before producing a folded Ziploc of white
truffles that he ferreted in from Oregon,
sharing their paralyzingly rich smell with Point
Lobos Ranger Chuck Bancroft and friends like an
ancient secret.)
First he debunks a common misconception:
Running water over mushrooms is not just OK,
it’s the best way to clean them&emdash;just
don’t soak them. Then he unveils his “holy
trinity of cooking with mushrooms”: Soy, salt,
and a pinch of sugar to cut the soy’s metallic
taste.
An hour later the peak enchantment of the
weekend kicks in, with the introduction of the
competing chanterelle-based plates prepped by
Big Sur’s best chefs. The 10 entries include
chanterelle pot pies from the Big Sur Bakery
(which win for most creative dish), deep-fried
Scotch eggs wrapped in a chanterelle duxelle
from Fernwood Grill (which take best
presentation), sautéed chanterelle and
braised duck on crostini from Esalen (best
featured dish) and chanterelle bisque with
truffle shavings from Ventana’s El Cielo
Resturant (People’s Choice award). And those
dishes are just the beginning&emdash;all the
comatose-quality treats and overall atmosphere
will have Big Sur and beyond buzzing for months.
Meanwhile, the universal good vibe seems enough
to cement this event onto the community
calendar&emdash;and to validate the lofty words
event collaborator Jack Ellwanger used to open
the event Friday night.
“For all the great things about Big Sur,” he
said, “There is nothing more great/ than the
lowest we can be/ ’cause the chanterelle/ raises
us to our highest art/ by bringing us to our
knees.”
TO LEARN MORE about local mushroom events,
visit fungusfed.org. For more on the cook-off
and other Big Sur events, visit
/chanterelle.htm