In Season - October

Wild Mushrooms

Mushrooms are the breakfast of champignons’ was a favourite school-room joke. Well, it made us giggle, though Madame, our unbending French mistress, was not amused. In those days, champignons were simply mushrooms: it never occurred to city girls such as myself to distinguish between wild and cultivated varieties. They were all neat white buttons that came packed in a cute little wooden box or slimy and slippery from a can. We knew they weren’t toadstools, that they were unlikely to be magic (at least in north Manchester), but long before today’s foraging frenzy, dashing off to the woods in a delirium of fungi-picking fever was as probable as a trip to the moon. A minor supporting role in the full English or creamy ’shrooms on toast was as racy as it got – if you could brave the texture and dark, satanic juices. Chestnut mushrooms’ pleasing colour and stronger, woodland flavour were a breakthrough. Large, flat portobellos were very grown-up, especially when stuffed with garlic and parsley. (A delicious, contemporary version by Peter Gordon uses cheese, chorizo and thyme.)