Sinopsis

Mushrooms—psychoactive, medicinal, or delicious—have fascinated us for millennia, facilitating spiritual quests in ancient and modern times and inspiring artists from Bosch to Kusama. Dig into The Gourmand’s third delicious course for TASCHEN: an in-depth mycological journey, stuffed with stories and original recipes.

Fungal Fantasia

A fricassee of stories and recipes that explore mushrooms as myth, medicine, and muse

The Gourmand’s Mushroom. A Collection of Stories & Recipes is a feast of content on the most mysterious, influential, and quietly radical ingredients on Earth. Revered as food, medicine, sacrament, and symbol, mushrooms appear suddenly and vanish just as fast, leaving an unmistakable cultural and culinary aftertaste.

This richly layered collection brings together The Gourmand’s signature blend of culinary craft and cultural inquiry. Paired with photography that celebrates mycological marvels as sculpture, pattern, and form, readers will enjoy essays ranging from ancient folklore and toxicology to avant-garde art, architecture, fashion, film, and space travel. Encounter Bosch and Beatrix Potter, María Sabina and the CIA, Yayoi Kusama, and Takashi Murakami. Savor cartoon mushrooms, fairy rings, death caps, fly agaric, and the enduring allure of the enchanted lingzhi. Trace fungi’s strange power to inspire devotion, fear, obsession, and delight.

Alongside the texts is an expansive collection or original recipes, celebrating mushrooms all their earthy, umami-rich glory. From delicate Cantonese stuffed mushrooms and crisp tempura to pierogi, risotto, ramen-adjacent relishes, wild mushroom ravioli, classic duxelles, and good old-fashioned mushroom ketchup.

The volume is introduced with a lyrical reflection on impermanence, foraging, and culinary memory by acclaimed chef and food writer Jeremy Lee. All at once a visual feast, a fanzine and a field guide, it’s an homage to fungi as fleeting marvels, cultural icons, and endlessly inventive ingredients.