For the chef and culinary personality, fungi teach us about community, life, death, and even fashion.
For Sophia Roe , fungus is a muse . The James Beard Award – win chef and Emmy - Award nominated television host is often try out with enoki and shiitakes at her Brooklyn - based culinary studio , Apartment Miso . On Vice TV’sCounter Space , she dedicate an entire sequence to the agency mushrooms are forage and glean around the world , geeking out with Giuliana Furci , Chile ’s first distaff mycologist . This summer , shecollaborated with Stella McCartneyon a braised mushroom formula , root on by the fashion house ’s mushroom-shaped cloud leather 2022 collection .
But Roe ’s obsession with the fruiting bodies of fungi go beyond physical functionality . The mycophile believes the land — or queendom , as she likes to call it — can learn us a band about the Hz of living and the conception of community , the necessary to barricade and give attention , as well as the possibility to drive the bounds of self - construction .
We spoke to Roe about originative manner to cook with mushrooms , mycelium as the framework of the time to come , and the grandness of fungous conservation , expose some folkloric myth in the appendage .
Photo courtesy of Sophia Roe
Thrillist : When did your love for fungi begin?Sophia Roe : My first loves are mold and barm . I ’m from Florida , which is a very humid place , so you exit solid food out on the rejoinder a few hours too long , and you ’re move to have mould . That was my launching to kingdom Fungi , mold as a nestling . I ’m a chef , so I ’m always appear at the genuine practicality of kingdom Fungi . You would n’t have bread without fungi . You would n’t have beer . You would n’t have wine .
As humankind , what lessons can we learn from the kingdom?What fungi teach me every day is mutualism — how we just really need each other way more than we retrieve . The mushroom-shaped cloud gives the tree water , the tree gives this mushroom its place . There ’s this form of beautiful , “ It needs me , I need it . ”
And that there ’s so much beauty after dying , or can be . I conceive decomposition is absolutely extraordinary . We are taught every facet of wellness , but everything is really gear towards longevity and living forever and see new forever . It ’s just silly . We ’re all live to die . So for me , fungi create this really beautiful apprehension . The most noble affair that any of us can do , eventually , is die , because that creates space for new things . It is the fungi ’s duty to break up — to break things down — so we can start anew again . When a tree diagram dies , it becomes a home for a million other Modern specie and new tree diagram . And without fungi , the earth would just be covered in numb soundbox everywhere . We ca n’t have new seasons , we ca n’t have harvest home , we ca n’t have spring without them . Fungi speak the most noetic language that nature has . We ’re so educated in flora , we ’re so educated in fauna . But none of those thing can exist without fungi .
Fungi can teach you about a whole cycle . It ’s not enough to empathise how something is made . You really do need to understand how something is break off down for abide by something — and its summons — in its entirety . I recall that fungus can teach us so much about process , and process really weigh , in particular for me as a chef .
If we ’re talking about mushroom specifically , they can really teach us how to pay off attention . I ’m tickle pink every clip I see one . I might be the only person to see it ! I know the cheekiness of the mushroom-shaped cloud . It ’s there today and gone tomorrow . It ’s a magical thing to stumble across a thing that exists for just a second . So the actual physicality of a mushroom is exciting to me because of that .
Do you imagine mushroom , like those that have been found to eat credit card , can help save the planet?I call up they can help fix job thathumans created . But I do n’t think they were put here to save the major planet . I do n’t live that fungus were ever thinking that it would have to do the thing that we ’re asking it to do . The groovy thing about fungi is that it ’s not really in a hurry . It ’s very under the radar .
Do I sense that they ’re the future ? I find that they ’re part of the future because we ’re finally utilize them in all their electrical capacity , but it make me sad that we have to . It makes me pitiful that we ’re asking fungus to break down credit card and radiation therapy . So , yes , they ’re an authoritative part of the future , because we need them to be .
How do mushroom-shaped cloud ignite a sensory faculty of play or imagination for you?I just think they ’re so beautiful . Move over flower . I mean there are mushroom thatglow in the night , in every semblance you could possibly envisage . Lactarius indigo , for example , has a beautiful , beautiful color . And there is such a sense of playfulness to a mushroom that I identify with a mass . If I had to be a affair like , “ If you could be a plant , what plant would you be ? , ” I would n’t be a works . I would in spades be a mushroom .
I obtain all the different format that fungi can present itself as a queendom to be really inspiring . Fungi are like , “ Yeah I ’m a yeast , but also I ’m a mushroom , but also I ’m some clay sculpture , but also I ’m a protist , but also I ’m a lichen . ” It create me want to push the boundaries of how I express myself . Like , yes , I am a chef , but what else am I ? What else can I do ? Am I just this one thing ? How can I be more like that in full term of residential area ? How can I connect more ? They really have a large impact .
" It is the fungi ’s responsibility to decompose — to break things down — so we can start afresh again . "
What do you think are some misconception associated with mushrooms?That they ’re slimy . I mean , listen , there ’s nothing worse than a can of mushroom , you know what I mean ? I cerebrate it ’s all about how you cook them .
We ’re also kind of taught that mushroom are this yucky affair . The amount of times I ’ve plump on a hike and I see another person and say , “ Oh my gosh , if you keep walking , to your left , there ’s pass to be some gorgeous mushrooms . ” And citizenry are like , “ Nah , I do n’t do that sort of hooey . ” And I ’m like , “ What are you talking about ? You consider I ’m out here in nature panhandling psilocybin ? I ’m telling you there ’s some really beautiful mushroom over there . Take a picture . ”
I also think there ’s a common misconception that all wild mushrooms are dangerous , and they ’re not . There are wild mushroom cloud that are not edible because they just taste like bullshit , not because they ’re toxicant . I think there ’s 1.6 million different types of fungi . It ’s pretty zany to take up that they ’re all unsafe . In fact , a portion of research out there hint that there ’s only about a hundred or 200 that are deadly .
It ’s also a common misconception that a pot of mushrooms are psilocybin , that a lot of mushrooms will get you gamey . That is also not the showcase . There ’s only so many mushrooms that are psilocybin , gilt teachers , that will in reality make you trip . There are right smart more that are eatable that are not going to do that to you .
What ’s something you often see people doing wrong when cooking them?I do n’t want to say there ’s a right-hand or wrong way , because if you make the mushroom a certain elbow room , and you wish the way that they taste , then that ’s good for you . But I do think it ’s important to consider the type of mushroom . They ’re all different . There ’s not a one - sizing - fits - all in full term of how to prepare a mushroom . I believe another common misconception is that the only affair you could do is saute them with white wine and butter . I suppose that ’s smashing , but you could do a lot more with them . People should consider cooking mushroom in the elbow room that they cook meat . Not all , but a lot of mushroom can cope with a lot of preparation . you’re able to braise a mushroom . you’re able to rib a mushroom .
What ’s your favorite unlawful style to incorporate mushrooms in recipes , beyond the saute?I really like to use dried mushroom . If there ’s a summer crop , I ’ll just immediately take them and dry them , so that I can practice them in the surrender and the wintertime . In the wintertime in North America , you ’re not go to find mushroom . If you do , a good deal of times , they ’re not really edible , because of the icing . So one of my pet way is to make broth with them and then wassail it , almost like you would drink bone broth , or utilizing that stock to cook grain or pasta .
A caboodle of multitude are really into mushrooms for medicinal value . Yeah that ’s great , ganoderma , reishi , I get it . For me it ’s a lilliputian bit more of a flavor thing . I think that lobster mushroom or chicken of the forest have such great flavor . I also think you could utilize mushroom with desserts . There are picky mushrooms that actually taste really good with chocolate . And so , you’re able to really mix dried mushroom with cacao , for just a dusting on top of peanut butter toast in the morn , or even a live burnt umber . This is why you see so many reishi chocolate compounding in powder form . Those two things taste in reality very adept together .
What ’s a mushroom-shaped cloud that you think everyone should consider experimenting with?My favorite mushroom is theTremella fuciformis , or snow fungus . Tremellais my preferred genus . It ’s used a peck in Formosan culinary art . They ’re really lowly , and then they exposit . It almost await like red coral or something . They make up to 50 times their free weight in water , and I just think that ’s the cool thing ever . They ’re super high in what we call “ plant - found collagen , ” but here it would actually just be fungus kingdom - based collagen , and collagen is often thought to only amount from animals . You often seeTremellain a lot of skin upkeep . It ’s really great for barren radical damage and premature aging and all that shit , but I really detest that variety of language , so at last , the salutary matter aboutTremellafor me is that , because it has that form of jellylike texture , it ’s a respectable absorber . That ’s why the Chinese habituate it a lot in soup and stew , with date or Chinese plum . It almost has a dumpling - like texture , which is pretty coolheaded .
Are there any upcoming mushroom innovations that you are particularly excited about , beyond the solid food industry?I’m very much pep up by fashion . And that ’s something that perhaps a lot of Captain Cook and chefs do n’t talk about , not because they do n’t have not bad fashion sense , but I think that I ’m always really assay to define the intersection . We ’re seeing designers like Alexander McQueen , Stella McCartney , and Rodarte really root on by fungi , and I care seeing that it ’s not just “ We ’re going to put a mushroom-shaped cloud on a shirt , ” but also “ Let ’s regard what we can do with mycelium , let ’s view how go about physicalness , how we go about excogitation and service program . ” Fungi utterly barrack me when it hail to utility . So I think it ’s really capital that we ’re regard doing away with leather altogether , and utilise mycelium as a replacement . We actually have a farsighted way to go , but I do believe that fungi can absolutely be a really interesting ring road to a future that reckon like a lot less leather or a caboodle less carbon paper emission , which is pretty rad .
How do you hope we can keep on an interest in mushrooms and continue check about them?I do n’t think they ’re going anywhere . I think back think , in 2019 , I cognize this was going to happen . And even with my show , when I said I want to do an episode on mushrooms , they were like , “ Okay , you ’re doing a food show , not a drug show , ” and I thought , Wow , we really need to do this episode , because you guy cable are miss it . I think what we can do is teach about it in the same way that we learn about plants , the same path that we teach about flowers . We need to start at the kid levels . We have rise box at school day , eatable schoolyards , but I need citizenry to have it off about mushroom in the same way they walk into a goddamned grocery memory board and know the deviation between Swiss chard and spinach .
Let ’s seek to unlearn that mushroom-shaped cloud are earthy . Let ’s seek to unlearn that mold is bad . You have fungus all over your body , keeping you active . You have it in your oral fissure , in your ear . We just need to keep lecture about it and also protect it . It ’s not enough to just be a vegan . At the death of the day , we need to be putting our resource and our minds to ground preservation , i.e. , fungous preservation , i.e. , brute preservation . I feel like we have to look outside of ourselves a small turn . It ’s not just about your disbursement habit and how you eat . We actually have to go out of our way to protect land and protect the resource that we have , because overpoweringly , they ’re less and less every single grow season .
So the passion for me is n’t just like , “ Oh , mushrooms are cute . ” The love for me is that there ’s only two countries in the world that in reality even have legislation for fungal protection . That is n’t dear . We need to have lawmaking for all land , animal , fungi , shelter and preservation . So it ’s my hope that the more hoi polloi are educated and the more that they memorise , the more they ’ll be like , “ Oh rat , this stuff and nonsense ’s in reality really important . Let ’s put our resources towards this . ”
