The New Wildcrafted Cuisine: Exploring the Exotic Gastronomy of Local Terroir by Pascal Baudar
By Ainslie Campbell
While the first image of wild edibles is probably barefoot radicals munching on dead grass under a full moon, the new cookbook from Belgian-born, South California-based culinary alchemist Pascal Baudar invites readers into the uncharted but accessible culinary realm of wilderness cooking.
Baudar applies the more customary wine term, terroir (the natural personality of a region) to ingredients some could find unpalatable: decomposing leaves, insects and forest grass. Recipes like Beef Stone-Cooked in Forest Floor, which calls for “a handful of forest floor mix” (grass, leaves, fennel, mushrooms), and Blueberry-Fennel-Mugwort Soda are daunting but endlessly fascinating. Baudar’s philosophy of cooperating with nature instead of dominating it brings readers detailed sections on cooking with dirt, sticks, bark, leaves, sap and stones, with the cookbook acting as a gateway drug into the unexplored and seemingly limitless world of wild edibles.
( April 2016 )
