Mikuni Wild Harvest, Tyler Gray, Tim Weighill, Gord Weighill, Grant Achatz, Masaharu Morimoto, Joel Robuchon, Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, Bradley Ogden, Norman Van Aken. Exotic wild mushrooms, cultivated mushrooms, Matsutakes, Blue Foots, Chanterelles, Hedge Hogs, Abalones, White Elfs, Candy Caps, Smoke Cured Brook Trout , Natural Cured Brook Trout Caviar Roe, Arctic Char Caviar; Roe Sea Asparagus, Sea Beans, Baby Purple Artichokes; Glacier Lettuce, Ice Plant, Hidden Rose Apples, Finger Limes, Black Garlic, Joel Robuchon, Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup, Blis, Huilerie Beaujolaise Vinegre de Citron, California Santa Monica Farmer's Market, Vancouver, Portland, Las Vegas, Foraging, Forager, Mushroom Forager.
WHAT
Sustainable wild foods company.
WHY
Top chefs use their products. A food geek’s Disneyland.
CONSIDER
You may pay a bit more, but you’re buying the haute couture of food.
MIKUNI WILD HARVEST
January 5, 2010
Blue Foots, Hedge Hogs, and White Elfs may sound like the cast from the Lord of the Rings, but they’re actually edible wild mushrooms. Mikuni Wild Harvest finds these weird, but cool, products and supplies them to the most discerning chefs on the planet.
David Chang, Grant Achatz, Masaharu Morimoto, Joel Robuchon, Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, Bradley Ogden, and Norman Van Aken are just some of the big name chefs buying Mikuni’s exceptional products to cook with.
The name Mikuni is the fusion of two Japanese words and means “beautiful forest.” They seek out farmers, fishermen, foragers and producers with off-the-beaten track wild foods, indigenous to North America.
Mikuni was started nine years ago by three mushroom foragers. Two of the foragers are brothers, Tim and Gord Weighill, and have been providing the Japanese speciality market with the highly sought-after, but once nearly extinct, Matsutake mushroom since the 1980’s. The third partner, Tyler Gray, grew up mushroom foraging in Vancouver.
How unusual are their products? Check out these Hidden Rose Apples, which are bright red even on the inside.
Other examples of what they sell are: Baby Purple Artichokes; Glacier Lettuce (Ice Plant), Brook Trout and Arctic Char Caviar, and Candy Cap Mushrooms (which actually taste like maple syrup).
Tyler gave us a tour of their warehouse in Long Island City. It was food-geek heaven. Walking through the door, you get a giant whiff of woodsy truffles and aromatic mushrooms. And that’s just the start. With all the passion of Willy Wonka, he explained with acute detail what makes their products so unusual. It was a taste-test roller coaster. Finger Limes, better known as citrus caviar, have tiny, juicy beads that pop in your mouth. Black Garlic is dark in color with notes of soy and balsamic; White Truffles contains a splotch of red, (loved by chef Joel Robuchon); Blis Maple Syrup, aged in specially selected 12 to 18 year old single barrel bourbon casks; and Huilerie Beaujolaise Vinegre de Citron, so fruit forward you feel like drinking it with soda water.
Currently, most of their products are only available to the professional culinary market, but this is slowly changing as they are now selling some items to the home-consumer online and in specialty gourmet stores.
Mikuni Wild Harvest is one company worth watching, like an indie rock label constantly finding the latest new bands, they have their finger on the pulse of the newest and most amazing wild food products.
TIPS FROM THE MIKUNI WILD HARVEST TEAM
Tips on Foraging:
When asked about foraging Tyler equated learning to forage to learning to drive. You don’t just get in the car if you don’t know how to drive. Learn from someone with knowledge about wild foods. Otherwise, you may have a low success rate. But it can be an exciting and adventurous experience.
Tips on Cleaning Wild Matsutake Mushrooms:
1. Don’t wash the mushrooms in water.
2. If the veil under the cap is still intact, you’ll have less cleaning to do since the veil protects the mushroom from dirt. A mushroom with the veil intact is worth more.
3. Wipe the mushroom with a cloth to remove the dirt.
4. To clean the remaining dirt, take a knife and clean off the layer of dirt.
Tips on Storing Truffles:
1. Although you see truffles stored in rice, it’s not the best storage technique.
2. Truffles are 90% water so their shelf life is very short.
3. Ideally, use fresh truffles as quickly as possible.
4. Store them in a sealed container in a controlled atmosphere. Wrap them in a slightly damp paper towel and you might be able to squeeze two weeks out of a truffle (if you can resist the pungent charms).
5. Chef’s buy in-season truffles in 1 pound increments so that they don’t have any waste.
Click HERE to find out where mushroom forager Tyler Gray from Mikuni Wild Harvest likes to eat and the purveyors he recommends.
Click HERE to find out where mushroom forager Tyler Gray from Mikuni Wild Harvest likes to eat and the purveyors he recommends.
