The Final Frontier of Food with Chef Alan Bergo — WildFed Podcast #004

iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS

---

In this episode:

Chef Alan Bergo | The Forager Chef

Podcast discussion:

• Menomonie, WI — A town named for wild rice

• How Alan got his start as a chef

• Being creative every day

• The Wild West of restaurants — Wild plants + mushrooms

• Foraging for flavor

• Nature’s microgreens

• What are culinary tweezers good for?

• Painting a new palette — Unique flavors of wild food cuisine

• How to use vacuum seal bags to do fermentation at home

• Sous vide

• What types of restaurants does Alan prefer when he eats out

• Real food, science and gimmicks

• Plant Family Analogs

• Cooking with meristematic seeds

• Alan’s experience with Lyme Disease + danger in wild food foraging

• Real plants doing real plant things

• A newfound love of eating pigeons

• WildFed Season 2 Sneak Peak — Wisconsin episode dinner

• The best way to dress a wild salad

• Where to find Alan online

---

WildFed Podcast is brought to you by:

---

Episode Resources: 

• Forager Chef

• Alan on Instagram @foragerchef and Facebook

• Alan’s lamb and goat video series

• Menomonie

• Chickweed, Stellaria media

• Sweet fern, Comptonia peregrina

• Forager Chef post: How to cook with cedar cones

• Wild carrot, Daucus carota

• Michel Bras

• René Redzepi

• Magnus Nilsson

• Fäviken

• Fäviken by Magnus Nilsson

• The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson

• The Nordic Baking Book by Magnus Nilsson

• Sunflower family, Asteraceae

• Smude's Sunflower Oil

• Gallant soldier, Galinsoga parviflora

• Cardoon, Cynara cardunculus

• Sam Thayer

• Sam Thayer’s books:

  • The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

  • Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

  • Incredible Wild Edibles

• Beach pea, Lathyrus japonicus

• Alan’s recap of the WildFed dinner: The Pigeon Hunt

• Podcast: Pigeons: Homing, Passenger, Carrier and Otherwise

• David Arora

• Forager Chef post: Thoughts on Ramaria / Coral Mushrooms

• Lobster mushroom, Hypomyces lactifluorum

• Tooth mushroom, Hericium americanum

• Wild black cherries, Prunus serotina

• Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana

• Lamb’s quarters, Chenopodium album

• Amaranth, Amaranthus

• Mallow, Malva

• Nasturtium, Tropaeolum

• Comfrey, Symphytum

• Forager Chef post: Foraging and cooking with sochan or cut leaf coneflower

• Forager Chef post: Spruce tip ice cream

• Forager Chef post: Groundhog stew

---

Meet Alan Bergo

Alan Bergo is the Forager Chef, a leading authority on culinary uses of mushrooms and plants. Thousands follow his work at Forager | Chef – a website dedicated to wild food seasonal cooking.

A Midwestern native, Alan worked for 10 years under Italian chefs and then served as sous chef to Lenny Russo at St. Paul’s 7-time James Beard nominee Heartland. He led two restaurants as executive chef of the Salt Cellar and then at farm to table cornerstone Lucia’s in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is a consultant on everything from foraging for unique restaurant menus to how mushrooms can be used for wild things like grain-free starch fabrication and even as a condiment.

His upcoming book titled “Flora” is a study in rare and forgotten plants, herbs, vegetables, and culinary techniques.

Website | Instagram @foragerchef | Facebook