Forgotten Wild Plant Cuisine with Alan Bergo — WildFed Podcast #031

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In this episode:

Alan Bergo | The Forager Chef

Podcast discussion:

• How COVID-19 has impacted Alan

• The detrimental affects of COVID-19 on the farm/forest to table restaurant industry

• “The shopping wish list”

• Alan's background

• Plant family analogs

• A DIY wild vanilla extract substitute

• Alan's exciting new project — The Wild Harvest

• Fusion of foraged cuisine with “poverty cuisine”

• What drives Alan's wild food creativity and innovation

• Alan's hope for his legacy in wild foods

• Pandemic hopes & predictions — how COVID-19 will affect food culture

• Golden nugget of wild food cuisine wisdom

• Closing thoughts

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Watch Alan’s new show — The Wild Harvest

Episode Resources: 

• Forager Chef

• Alan on Instagram @foragerchef and Facebook

• Alan’s new show: The Wild Harvest

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

• Hunter Angler Gardener Cook with Hank Shaw — WildFed Podcast #029

• Japanese knotweed, Reynoutria japonica

• Forager Chef blog: Fermented Knotweed Dill Pickles Recipe

• Linda Black Elk

• Galium triflorum

• Sweet woodruff, Galium odoratum

• Jesse Roesler — Credo Nonfiction

• Spring beauty, Claytonia virginica

• Black walnut, Juglans nigra

• Sam Thayer / Forager Harvest Black Walnuts from Hammons

• Forager Chef blog: Guide to Black Walnuts: How to Harvest, Store and Prepare

• Local Mediterranean Food Plants and Nutraceuticals (Forum of Nutrition, Vol. 59)

• Sochan, Rudbeckia laciniata

• Forager’s Chef blog: Sochan

• Around The World in 80 Plants: An Edible Perennial Vegetable Adventure for Temperate Climates by Stephen Barstow

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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