Food Trend: Foraging
If the supermarket aisles have left you uninspired, seek satisfaction with a little hunter-gathering
Featured August 09 Words by Heidi Fuller-LovePHOTO © PHOTOLIBRARY
Fans of pristine lawns and weedkiller will be shocked to learn that many of the plant species they've cheerfully sprayed to oblivion are part of the staple diet in many Mediterranean countries. They'll be even more stunned to learn that foraging is the hottest new food fad. Especially with French celebrity chef Marc Veyrat opening a new wild-food eaterie near Geneva, and British cordon bleu chef Jamie Oliver serving hedgerow food in his London-based restaurants.
But what exactly is wild food? "Anything edible that has had no management to increase its production," in the words of Veyrat.
The French chef, with his trademark broad-brimmed shepherd's hat and clompy boots, has already set the French culinary world ablaze with his innovative cuisine and is doing it again with his latest project, Cozna Vera, a fast-food joint near Geneva serving dishes concocted from locally sourced and foraged ingredients.
"Cozna Vera is McDonald's for gourmets - it should be possible to eat fast and eat well without spending a fortune," says the enfant terrible of Gallic cuisine.
So follow us and grab a slice of a new food fad that's good for you, your wallet and the planet too.
Sea Weed and Eat Weeds
LONDON
Scavenge everything from seaweed to samphire on a oneday coastal foraging course with the star of the BBC show The Roadkill Chef, Fergus Drennan.
From £110 (€125) with lunch; www.wildmanwildfood.com
Forage for Fungi
INVERNESS
If you can't tell a "dog stinkhorn" from a "shaggy ink cap", head out on a fungi break in the glorious Highlands with Holiday Cottages.
From £280; www.highlandholidaycottages.com
Become a Wild Gourmet
BRISTOL
Join Belgian botanist Raoul Van den Brocker and chef Matt Tebbutt to forage for wild greens in weed-strewn Welsh countryside, then bring your harvest back to their kitchen and watch the man who's worked alongside Marco Pierre White rustle up a sumptuous wild-food meal.
From £125 for two; www.thefoxhunter.com
Wander with a Witch
MILAN
Author of countless books about edible and curative herbs, botanist Laura Rangoni, known locally as la strega di montagna (the witch of the mountain), leads autumn food forays into the mountains near Bergamo to find the clove-flavoured herb wood avens, garlicky "Jack-by-the-hedge" and more.
Prices on request; www.laurarangoni.com
Forage en Famille
BRUSSELS
Families will adore walking out on a La Gaumette tour to scavenge near Linkebeek and return with a bumper harvest to make everything from nettle quiche to rose-hip ice cream.
From €25; www.lagaumette.be
Wild Weekend
LYON
Spend a long weekend seeking out roots, leaves and flowers in rolling Ardèche countryside with wild plant connoisseur Bachir Henni, then learn how to turn them into everything from face masks to dandelion liqueur.
From €390; www.toquesauvage.com
Al Fornello da Ricci
BRINDISI
Touted as one of Puglia's best restaurants, chef Antonella Ricci's Michelin-starred farmhouse restaurant near Brindisi has long wooden tables and lamps made out of copper buckets. Highlights of the menu include the tangy mint omelette and light-as-a-feather wild herb omelette.
From €40 for the set menu; tel: +39 0831 377 104
Further Reading
Matt Tebbutt Cooks Country (£20), published by Mitchell Beazley, www.octopusbooks.co.uk
The Forager Handbook by Miles Irving (£30), published by Ebury Press, www.eburypublishing.co.uk
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Never pick food from heavily polluted areas and don't eat plants or wild mushrooms unless they've been positively identified by an expert.
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