The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America

Cook (columnist, Seattle magazine; Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager) takes readers into a world of fascinating contrasts and characters as he reveals how commercially prized wild mushrooms, e.g., morels, chanterelles, trumpets, and matsutake, are hunted, bought, sold, and prepared. Immersing himself in the wild mushroom subculture of the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states, Cook tells the story of an underground economy supported by pickers (both marginalized, often itinerant pickers and local, recreational pickers), best-selling cookbook writers, society chefs (some names are fictionalized), and the urban restaurant scene, from Seattle to New York. Along the way, readers learn about mushroom taxonomy, discover delicious recipes, come to understand the living conditions of immigrant pickers, and stand in line in a Montana airport with buyers shipping hundreds of pounds of wild mushrooms to markets and restaurants in New York.