Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/1196352
Wild foods | Winemaker Dinner | Valentine’s Day | Cocktail Corner | And more 16 WAC Magazine | wac.net Executive Chef Eric Floyd shows off some chanterelle mushrooms, just some of the wild foods you can find on WAC menus. u Wild foods Taste Washington Cocktail corner Valentine's dinner Taste By Eric Floyd, WAC Executive Chef If you've ever foraged for mushrooms, dug for clams, or even just picked black- berries on the side of the road, then you know how delicious the rewards of wild foods can be. For me, going deep into nature—oen atop a knobby-tired dual-sport motorcycle—brings me to places few get to see. It also offers some much needed personal regeneration; keeps me in touch with the wonderful bounty of Pacific Northwest forests, rivers, and oceans; and sparks my inner culinary creativity. Here at the WAC, we've been incor- porating wild foods into our menus for years. When it comes to sourcing these ingredients, I work closely with Mikuni Wild Harvest. Mikuni's focus on wild foods and longtime commitment to sus- tainable harvests has made them many restaurants' go-to source for uncultivat- ed ingredients. e wild foods movement has been growing in popularity since at least 2010, when West Coast chefs began to publi- cize high-end multicourse dinners with ingredients such as wild artichokes, sea beans, and mustard that might otherwise be considered a weed. Of course, native peoples were using wild foods in the Americas almost exclusively thousands of years before Europeans showed up. So the movement is nothing new. It is, however, great fun! Seafood lovers will most likely be well aware of the wild foods movement. As fish farms continue to face scrutiny, especially here in Washington state, more consumers seek wild-caught salmon, among other species. Anthony's Seafood Co. has been a longtime WAC Uncultivated tastes How the flavors of nature are inspiring WAC menus O L I V I A B R E N T