Flavors Unknown

Alan Bergo – The Forager Chef

Chef Alan Bergo

Minneapolis-based forager Alan Bergo is the author of The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora, a culinary companion to a forager’s field guide that highlights the beauty and flavors around us. You’ll hear how foraging gave him an appreciation for the whole vegetable, the most exciting flavors he’s encountered while foraging, and the connection that he’s gained to the land through viewing it as an edible amusement park.

What you'll learn with chef Alan Bergo

The beauty of the foraging experience (3:34)
Staying safe when eating in the wild (5:33)
The legality serving foraged foods in restaurants (7:31)
The wildly diverse world of morels (11:03)
Dedication to a wild gardner (13:49)
A root to flower concept of cooking (16:19)
Looking at foraged plants through a cultural lens (22:28)
How to cook with daylilies (28:21)
The most exciting foraged flavors (30:25)
Debunking the acorn myth (34:27)
Extending the shelf-life of wild greens (39:02)
Foraging in every season (42:05)
Viewing the world as an edible amusement park (44:54)
Foraging recipes to make at home (46:46)
One must-have cookbook for forager chef’s (48:42)
A culinary tour of Minneapolis (49:16)
Series of rapid-fire questions.
Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcast

Links to most downloaded episodes (click on any picture to listen to the episode)

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No one is going to die when you have a forger that knows what they're doing.

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Studying wild plants and mushrooms transformed my cooking style. I thought I cooked hyper seasonal before, but I had no idea. It's really just made me a deeper appreciation for what seasonal food is.

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If you interact with your environment, you can have fresh wild greens until basically the snow falls. 

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A funny thing about morels is that they're absolutely 100% toxic raw, if you put them on a burger raw, you're going to go straight to the hospital.

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One of the best things about foraging is to look at a landscape as not just a landscape, but as an edible amusement park.

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