Mushrooms are known to add meatiness to meatless cooking, but now the rest of the fungi kingdom is getting a shot in restaurant and foodservice kitchens.
Remember portobello burgers? They were the first attempt by many restaurants at putting a meatless burger on the menu. And they were pretty good.
But the selection of plant-based meat products has grown exponentially since those days, with companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods leading the charge—however polarizing it might be. Recently, there’s been considerable consumer backlash against the processed meat analogs they produce, with a call to return to more natural alternatives.
That backlash is making room for mushrooms and other fungi—not technically plants—to reign again as meatless options.
Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of Michelin-starred Le Bernardin in New York City, is a fungi fan, as he shared during a panel titled “Meat Mushrooms: Your New Center of the Plate Protein,” at the Plant Based World Expo held earlier this month at the Javits Center in New York City.
Ripert incorporates fermented fungi into his upscale menu, which focuses primarily on seafood but includes a vegetarian tasting menu as an option.
He’s consulting with a company called Nature’s Fynd, working with their teams to incorporate fermented and steamed fungi into menu items including saffron risotto, stuffed zucchini flowers and cheesecake. The product is made from Fy, a nutritional fungi protein, and has a cheese-like flavor and 50% protein composition.
“You have to be more plant-forward than plant-based to move more people to the vegetable world,” said Ripert. “You have to educate subtly; if customers are curious, we’ll tell them more.”
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