Book Review

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Amy Farges is co-owner of Marche Aux Delices (using the trademark "Aux Delices Des Bois") with her husband Thierry. The firm distributes wild mushrooms across the United States from their offices in New York City. Amy picked up the mushroom bug from Thierry who comes from a French family with a strong heritage of mushroom foraging and eating. For this book she collaborated on the recipes with cooking professional Chris Styler. Unlike the typical recipe book, this book hinges on Amy's engaging writing style and not just the recipes.

The first 13 pages of introductory material are enjoyable reading and provide a bit of history and background on both wild and cultivated mushrooms as well as hints on selecting, storing,cleaning, cooking and preserving mushrooms. The next major section is about 270 pages of recipes, but that section is not without Amy's enjoyable prose. Each recipe includes an introductory paragraph that explains what you can expect for a result and what the best use for each dish might be (party dish, appetizer, main dish etc.).

The recipe section of the book is split into 13 subsections. Among the recipes in a few of those subsections:

• Finger Foods: Shrimp, Shiitake, and Wood Ear Wontons
• Openers: Double Oyster Gratin (with oyster mushrooms AND oysters)
• Soups from the Woods: Latin Tomato and Huitlacoche Soup (for those who want to use the corn smut from their gardens)
• Mushrooms in Salads: Pink Lentils with Shiitake and Enoki (the enoki are raw, but the shiitake are sauted)
• Mushrooms with Meat: Big Fat Sirloin Steak with Red wine, Marrow, and Wine Cap Mushrooms (Now there's a descriptive recipe title!)
• Poultry: Roasted Squab with Black Truffles (An outstanding holiday treat.)
• Seafood and Fish: Clam Nage with Straw and Enoki Mushrooms (A soup that's a meal.)
• Little Meals for Brunch or Lunch: My Hero (A combination of portobello mushrooms, mayonnaise, cheese and lettuce.)
• Grains, Beans, Pasta and Potatoes: Fettuccine with Shiitake (A simple way to be a gourmet.)
• Mushroomy Breads: Porcini-dust Twists (A couple teaspoons of porcini powder adds the flavor.)
• Mushroom Condiments: Roasted Shiitake Ketchup (A starting point for you to invent your own mushroom product.)

The final 38 pages are a "Mushroom Primer". What's that? Well, it's a description with preparation tips for each of the mushrooms featured in the book:

The primer section also includes mail order sources of mushrooms and a conversion table.

In summary, we think this is a great cookbook especially for the mushroom enthusiast who isn't a gourmet cook - yet. The straightforward discussions and detailed recipes will make it easy to create many great dishes for your table.

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