by Rebecca Rothbaum Poughkeepsie Journal |
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HIGH FALLS — "Look at this," said John Novi, gingerly placing a cardboard box, labeled "HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE," on the kitchen counter of his Depuy Canal House. Like a magician reaching into a top hat, the chef used both hands to produce a densely ruffled, brown-and-white mushroom the size of a football." John Novi, owner of the Depuy Canal House in High Falls, regularly works with the hard-to-find Japanese maitake mushroom. Known as the hen of the woods in the United States, but with a flavor and appearance devotees say is all its own, the Japanese maitake (Grifola frondosa) has become a fast favorite in top restaurants across the country. And while a few farms in this country also grow them, chefs like Novi prefer to get theirs from Japan, where a booming mushroom industry has made the notoriously difficult cultivation of maitake an art form.  Lee Ferris photos Poughkeepsie Journal Duxelle maitake tops Hudson Valley foie gras with a caponata of peas and pine nuts. Soon, however, American chefs may not have to look so far. The Japanese mushroom giant Yukiguni is hoping to start construction by the end of this year on a 925,000-square-foot mushroom-growing facility in Mamakating, Sullivan County — its first outside Japan — if it can clear all the zoning hurdles. |
Two years after the company purchased its 47-acre parcel, near a Kohl's warehouse and the Wurtsboro airport, it is nearing the end of an environmental impact review process that has been closely scrutinized by local conservation groups concerned about a strain on groundwater, as well as residents wary of development. Later this month, the town's zoning board of appeals will vote on variances the company has requested to build taller than the current zoning ordinance allows — about four stories — which would mean room for air-conditioning and other equipment to create the tightly controlled conditions necessary for growing the mushrooms.  This is what eryngii mushrooms look like before they're turned into tasty dishes. Up to 30 tons The company is hoping the new plant, which would eventually employ 210 people and produce as many as 30 tons of maitake a year, will spark a shiitake-like explosion in the American demand for its mushrooms. Earlier this spring, the plan attracted a Japanese television crew to Sullivan County and the Depuy Canal House as part of a show about Yukiguni and its rivals titled "The Mushroom Wars." (It aired in late May.) ""Even portobellos were once new, but everybody knows them now," Kaz Kameyama, CEO of Yukiguni Maitake Corporation of America, said in a recent telephone interview from his office in Middletown, Orange County. "I think maitake will be accepted by Americans all over the country — if we market them right."  Cross-section of a maitake mushroom. |
 Eryngii mushroom in a Thai lemongrass broth with clams. An American plant would certainly go a long way toward making them more affordable. A pound of maitake now sells for about $11 on the wholesale market — too much for many restaurants. Still, Ariane Daguin, co-owner of D'Artagnan, the New Jersey-based gourmet food purveyor that has been carrying Yukiguni's maitake and eryngii for the past several years, said the region's best chefs (think Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit and Danny Meyer of Gramercy Tavern) are willing to pay whatever the mushrooms cost because of their high quality. "Technically they are far superior," she said, "not only to their domestically cultivated counterparts but also to those found in the wild. It's a very beautiful mushroom and also very fragrant."  Maitake mushrooms are sauteed in olive oil with shallots and a ginger wine. Prized for its woodsy flavor and meaty texture but vexingly elusive in the wild, the maitake was often referred to in Japan as the phantom mushroom — that was until Yukiguni's founder Yoshinobu Ohdaira pioneered their cultivation in the mid-1980s using a mix of fermented hardwood sawdust, grain and water. Today, thanks to Yukiguni and other growers, mushroom-hungry Japan boasts a $320 million maitake market, said Kameyama. Novi, the son of Italian immigrants who grew up on mushrooms and has often foraged for them himself, said he appreciated the consistent quality of the imported maitake. "When people bring hen of the woods they have foraged, they are usually overgrown, so the stem is almost like wood," he said. "These are all uniform and the stem is firm." |
