Chef Andrea Fraire is smiling: 'It rained in Italy!' The new chef de cuisine at Grissini Grand Hyatt is relieved because rain in his native Piedmont means there are fresh porcini for his seasonal menu Parlando Di Funghi (Speaking of Mushrooms) and 10 delicious dishes are available, featuring fresh porcini harvested in Italy only one or two days ago.
Porcini (little pig) is the Italian name for the Boletus edulis, a wild mushroom found in forests across the northern hemisphere. Known by many names, including cepe de Bordeaux in France, king bolete and white (or noble) mushroom in Russia, it is one of the most sought after fungi and is found for less than two months each year.
Wild mushrooms need a combination of specific types of trees, and rain or damp followed by warm days. Fraire prefers to source his 'treasures' from the forested hills of northern Italy.
To savour all the subtleties of the porcini mushroom, Fraire recommends the whole porcini baked in a foil parcel with just rosemary, a little garlic and taggiasca olive oil. 'Simple cooking is all that is required with porcini as it is such a good product,' says Fraire.
All kinds of wild mushrooms are enjoyed in Italian and French cuisine; in fine dining restaurants they are a luxury ingredient. At Pierre restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, Boletus edulis are known by their French name, 'cepes', and are joined on the plate by trompette de mort, pied de mouton and button mushrooms.
Across continental Europe collecting mushrooms is seen as an outdoor activity, akin to fishing or hunting game and birds - something you do with friends or family in autumn.
In Russia especially, mushroom hunting is a national passion. 'We call mushrooms the meat of the forest,' says Irina Ustyogova from Moscow, a teacher at the Russian Language Centre in Sheung Wan. Ustyogova talks fondly of mushroom hunting with her parents and grandparents, who shared their love of mushrooms and taught her which were safe to collect.