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Taking place April 19-25, Mushroom Mania will dive into the world of fungi, from identification to culinary preparation.
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Chanterelles
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Turkey tail mushrooms
“I wanted to share their magic with other people,” Richmond native Lauren Vincelli says in regard to mushrooms.
Vincelli is a chef and founder of the fourth annual Mushroom Mania, a multiday affair from April 19-25 dedicated to exploring the culinary and medicinal properties of mushrooms. She talks about them like a proud parent.
“What [mushrooms] can do for the planet and what they do to inspire us creatively and culinarily — I wanted to unveil the magic of this often misunderstood kingdom with the people in Richmond,” she says.
Most recently in the kitchen at Cobra Cabana, the vegan and self-proclaimed "mushroom nerd" launched Mushroom Mania in 2018 as a way to showcase the wonders of fungus for the local community.
The festival was inspired by dinner parties held by Vincelli’s sister and fellow chef, Maya Vincelli. During these backyard feasts, mushrooms were center stage in each dish. The annual tradition eventually earned the nickname Mushroom Mania, later adopted by the festival.
Like many who dig deep into the world of mycology, Vincelli says her adoration for mushrooms and all their possibilities continued to grow the more she explored, as did her desire to spread her knowledge.
“Mushrooms are mysterious to many people, and many people are grossed out or there’s a lot of negative connotations with mushrooms — mold, fungus, a lot of limited misconceptions about what mushrooms are and what they’re here to do — but they are truly fascinating,” she says.
While Mushroom Mania was canceled last year due to the pandemic, this year it is going virtual. Kicking off on Monday, April 19, the event will feature a series of online seminars and sessions that cover everything from basic mushroom identification to cooking tips, a look at mushrooms and brain health, and the use of psilocybin or “magic” mushrooms for healing and trauma.
Vincelli, who notes that her favorite mushroom is maitake, says her hope is that Mushroom Mania unveils the far-reaching influence of mushrooms across the planet. For those more interested in form over function, there will also be a virtual tour highlighting the mushroom-inspired houses of architect Earl Young.
Joining the list of speakers is food journalist, nature lover, chef and James Beard Award-nominated author Eugenia Bone.
When she was growing up in New York, Bone says, foraging for oysters, gathering seasonal produce and hunting boar were normal in her family, and her adoration of wild food led her directly to the world of mushrooms.
“We never did sporty things as a family like hiking or sailing, but we did gather foods when they were in season," says the former president of the New York Mycological Society. “Mushroom hunting was something I really loved — the quiet hunt I find most moving.”
From capturing morels with honeycomb-like ridges during her youth to tracking down luxurious white truffles in Italy and Cordyceps in Tibet, Bone is well-versed in mushrooms and their potential in the kitchen.
On April 21, Bone will take participants through the making of the “Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook,” a collection of over 100 mushroom-based recipes from across the world.
Bone says the cookbook features fun, diverse recipes that people can “actually make for dinner" and that a recipe for enoki miso tofu soup exemplifies the difference between mushrooms and plants.
“You can cook mushrooms for a really long time … and they won’t lose integrity,” she explains. “Mushrooms are closer to animals in the tree of life than plants.”
On April 24 and 25, Mushroom Mania will wrap up with a socially distanced Moon Market, of which Vincelli is also the founder, at Triple Crossing Beer in Fulton. Featuring local growers including Steve Haas and the Richmond Herbalism Guild, purveyors in attendance will be selling everything from mushroom tea to skin products. Tickets for the virtual portion of the event are pay what you can, with a suggested price of $13; the Moon Market is free with items available for purchase.
"If you even just look a little bit, you’ll learn so much and be so surprised and so impressed with what you learned,” Vincelli says. “Mushrooms can save the world."
