Come join us for a delightful evening of learning about the fungi of Thailand from inventive chef and author, Zachary Mazi. Take a break from extreme politics and the Covid crisis to Zoom into a world of funky fungi from an experienced chef on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 6:30 p.m.
Chef Mazi is an experienced chef and recently new author. Classically trained in the art of French cuisine, with ventures into the wide array of New American and Pacific Northwest cuisine, Chef Zachary Mazi presents an organic, foraged, local, & imaginative experience in both global cuisine & dining. With a background in earth sciences intertwined with 28 years working in the service industry, and a self-guided holistic culinary history rooted in permaculture studies, herbal & mushroom medicines, Chef Mazi provides a comprehensive and inspirational view on how and what we should eat. Igniting others with his contagious zest for life, he creates lasting inspiration with delicious recipes and lectures, all centered in the unified and grounded art of being an imaginative human on Earth today. He currently lives and forages with his fiancé Kimberly Hunter in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He is the owner-chef-imaginator of The Food Bender, a cookbook author, and mycophagy researcher. See his self-published work on patreon.com/mycophagybook.
Since the pandemic he has found himself in Thailand with a great opportunity to dive into the funky world of Thai fungi from his experience living in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
Northern Thailand is a collection of nine provinces in the far northern part of the country. The region is very mountainous, and borders both Myanmar and Laos, jutting up into the SE Asian peninsula. The region, centered around the largest city in the area and the second largest city in Thailand Chiang Mai, it once operated as the autonomous Lanna Kingdom (1269-1558), then as a vassal state to Myanmar, and finally taken joining forces and being controlled by Siam (Thailand) in the late at the end of the 18th century. As a result, the food of Northern Thailand is unique in this part of the country. Foraging has been a big part of the heritage of the area, rich in various Hill Tribes (cuisines/customs) that have moved from China and around the SE Asian peninsula and operated as small communities outside of the kingdoms themselves.
The talk Chef Mazi is currently presenting is focused on the (mostly wild) edible mushrooms in Northern Thailand, the culture of foraging and cooking, and some details of where he has been hiking and what he has been finding in the region. Thailand, like many emerging myco-regions, has not yet been examined at the genetic level to a degree to give any certainty on a majority of the fungi, so it is a special time to be there.
He has recently published The Quarantine Quookbook, and is sharing a number of tongue teasing recipes with local fungi including wood ears, (Auricularua auricula-judae), velvet foot (Flammulina velutipes), split gills (Schizophyllum commune), and more.
Chef Mazi, is also known as the food bender, because of his belief that food literally shapes us. It shapes our culture, our bodies, or emotional well being, and for us mushroom enthusiasts it shapes what we spend every fleeting moment thinking about during monsoon or morel season. His passion for edible fungi and food is clear and contagious.
This opportunity to learn about Thailand fungi from Chef Mazi is not to be missed. Please RSVP now and you will be sent the Zoom link for October 21 at 6:30 p.m.