Hey there! I'm Iso, founder of forageSF, and I've spent the last 15 years thinking a lot about the best way to cook and collect and teach about food you can find in the forest.
For nearly a decade, I ran underground supper clubs focused on wild foraged foods (The Wild Kitchen), where we'd serve multi-course meals celebrating what was growing right outside our doors.
Of all the dishes I've created, there's one preparation that I come back to again and again when I want to truly taste what makes wild mushrooms special.
My Perfect Wild Mushroom Toast
Here's the thing about wild mushrooms – they're already incredible. They don't need fancy sauces or complicated techniques to shine. What they need is respect and the right simple approach to let their natural flavors come through.
After years of cooking them every way imaginable, this is the method I still use when I want to really taste the forest:
What you'll need:
1/2 pound wild mushrooms (chanterelles, porcini, or black trumpets work beautifully)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 clove garlic, minced
Flaky sea salt
Thick-cut crusty bread
Soft-boiled egg (optional but amazing)
The technique:
1. Start with a dry pan. This is the secret most people miss. Put your sliced mushrooms in a cold pan with nothing else, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, then turn heat to medium-low.
2. Let them "weep." Within a minute, you'll notice moisture being pulled out. Stay with them, gently turning every 30 seconds until all that moisture evaporates. You'll hear a subtle "squeak" when they're dry – that's your signal. Be very careful here though, this is not the moment to walk away for a wine refill, you can burn your mushrooms in a blink, so a meditative stare is my go-to during this step.
3. Now add the butter. Once the pan is dry, add butter and minced garlic. The now-dry mushrooms will soak up all that flavor instead of just sitting in liquid.
4. Slow and low. Cook gently until they're golden and fragrant – usually 3-5 minutes. Finish with flaky salt.
5. The perfect canvas. Spread the mushrooms over thick, crusty toast and top with a soft-boiled egg. Delicious.
The beauty of this method is you actually taste the mushroom, not just the stuff you cook it with. You get all those subtle woodland flavors that make wild mushrooms special in the first place.
I've made this for everyone from first-time foragers to professional chefs, and it always gets the same reaction - people slow down and really pay attention to what they're eating.
It's nothing fancy, but that's the point. Good ingredients don't need to be complicated.
Speaking of good ingredients - there's nothing quite like cooking with food you've found yourself. The same attention and care that makes this mushroom dish special applies to all wild foods, whether it's mushrooms in the fall or the wild plants we're finding right now.
If you're curious about discovering these ingredients yourself, we have wild plants walks, crabbing classes, and seaweed foraging coming up throughout the summer.
If you're interested in learning more about cooking with wild foods, I'd love to share what I've picked up over the years. There's so much incredible flavor out there just waiting to be discovered.
Join Our Foraging Classes & Explore More
Curious about more ways to use wild ingredients like mushrooms? Our foraging classes at forageSF offer hands-on learning and in-depth knowledge. For additional mushroom recipes, grab a copy of The Ultimate Sourgrass Cookbook: 100 Innovative Recipes for Nature’s Tangiest Herb.
Join our foraging class and consider buying the book for further inspiration!