Chef and forager Chad Hyatt shares his passion for mushrooms in a comprehensive new cookbook
Chad Hyatt is a double threat: both a classically trained chef and a connoisseur of wild mushrooms. These two skill sets have afforded him a unique niche in the culinary world, and allowed him to expand the boundaries of what is possible when cooking with mushrooms.
Formerly an engineer, Hyatt got hooked on foraging not long after switching careers. He had always been interested in local foods – both wild and cultivated—but the mystery and uniqueness of mushrooms in particular really entranced him, and inspired him to incorporate them into his cooking.
“I find mushrooms to be interesting the same way vegetables are interesting,” Hyatt said. “They have as much diversity in terms of flavor, texture and aroma as vegetables do. I love exploring those qualities and figuring out how I can do different things with them and incorporate them into
different dishes.”
His passion for mushrooms and dissatisfaction with the recipes he found in cookbooks motivated him to write his own book (information on how to buy it is at the end of this article).
“As a chef, I always wound up doing the same things with mushrooms,” Hyatt said. “I was searching for new ideas, but everywhere I looked I only found 1950s-style ‘Betty Crocker’ cooking. I wanted recipes that were a little more interesting. So I challenged myself to come up with different ways to use mushrooms.”
Hyatt also wanted to expand readers’ notions of which mushrooms are desirable to eat, and dispel myths and misinformation about them. The book includes not only recipes, but also a bit about the science of mushrooms, details on how to prepare and cook them, and an extensive appendix of over 60 wild and cultivated edible mushrooms.
“Most of what we’re taught about how to handle mushrooms seems to be based more on old wives tales and mythology than it is about their actual chemistry and biology,” Hyatt explained. “For example, hearing things like ‘don’t get mushrooms wet and don’t cook them in water’ drove me nuts. And in terms of varieties, I think too many people get hung up on only looking for things like porcini and chanterelles. I really want people to start exploring other mushrooms.”
Based in the Bay Area, Hyatt previously worked in restaurants and even owned his own barbecue joint for a while, but he currently spends most of his time spreading the gospel of cooking with mushrooms all around northern California and beyond. He frequently teaches mushroom-related cooking classes and hosts mushroom-themed dinners in northern California, including one recently at the Little River Inn in Albion during Forage Mendocino’s second annual Mushroom Symposium.
For more information about Chad Hyatt and his cookbook, visit themushroomhunterskitchen.com.
Click here to see three recipes from The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen!
Pre-order a copy now!
The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen: A Culinary Homage to Wild and Cultivated Mushrooms will go on sale on July 1, 2025 but is available for pre-order now. Visit The Experiment Publishing’s website for information on where and how to pre-order.
