For our March meeting, for our main lecture will be by Zachary Mazi on the topic of mushroom cookery.  The tittle of his presentation is "Erecting the Third Culinary Kingdom: A fungi-centric review of cooking literature past, present, and future".

Zachary is a classically trained chef, owner-chef-imaginator of The Food Bender, a cookbook author, and researcher in mycophagy (a/k/a eating mushrooms) researcher.  He also has a self-published mycophagy work on Patreon, “Mycophagy: The Art and Science of Cooking (and eating) Mushrooms".  Zachary explores the premise that our cookbooks’ focus on the plant and animal kingdom (lumping mushrooms under "M" in the vegetable section!) is ignoring and misunderstanding the third great kingdom, fungi.  

Zachary’s presentation will expand our horizons by not only exploring some of the nuance of both edible mushrooms but also the fungi we employ in all manner of cooking already, from fermentation to baking. This engrossing and informative presentation sheds light not just on cooking fungi, but on our history with cooking and with the art of cooking as a human race, urging us to start thinking outside of the box we didn't even know we were in! 

After the Mitch Fournet's Virtual ID table, there will be a couple of short programs before Zachary's presentation.

• John Harper will provide some tips on identifying elm trees in anticipation of morel season and comments on their association with morels
• April Thompson will talk about her vision for MAW culinary activities this year (including use of the culinary forums by members of the Culinary Co-Op) 

We're virtual again this month via Zoom.  Here are the login credentials, including passcode should you need it.

Meeting ID 966 9369 0911
Passcode  330827

One Tap Mobile
+13017158592,,96693690911#,,,,*330827# US (Washington DC)

Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kQ9hr47WO