Autumn Culinary Arts Panel and Demo

Spike Mikulski
Spike is the Executive Chef at Pot au Feu Bistro in Providence, Rhode Island, where he gets to prepare and serve foraged ingredients you can't find on any other menu in New England. Spike is Rhode Island's first mushroom forager approved by the State to sell wild mushrooms commercially and he teaches the State’s certification program once a year for those also interested in foraging mushrooms for local restaurants and markets. During the rainy season, Spike enjoys studying the Amanitaceae, some of which make up his top ten edibles. Unfortunately for Rhode Island, there are no Amanita approved for sale, so you will not find them on the menu at Pot au Feu. He does, however, get to utilize his experience as an Amanita Expert and Northeast specialist for the “Poisons Help; Emergency Identification for Mushrooms & Plants” Facebook group as an identifier. In the off season, he has taken a fascination to learning food molds and plant pathogens commonly seen in the modern kitchen, observing occurrences like "sour-rot" on sweet potato caused by Geotrichum candidum (which is utilized in cheese making) or garlic bulbs being parasitized by Penicillium corymbiferum (known for its antibiotic properties). Spike has a few of his dishes featured on Instagram at @1wd2ef3rg4th5yj6uk7il He also has some educational Amanita Identification videos on his YouTube Channel.

Robert is a former chef, President of the Ottawa Mycological Society, and teacher of a variety of different in-person and online fungi classes including mushroom identification, cultivation and the history of fungi. Robert founded Think Fungi, an organization focused on the research, education and conservation of fungi. Think Fungi has launched a free community for mycophiles and a mushroom marketplace to fund research projects. Think Fungi led the charge in the 2022 Great North American FungiQuest, which resulted in 150,000 observations of 4,400 species in North America in a one-month period. Robert began foraging mushrooms for the first time in 2010 as a chef in Europe and the pursuit of these delicacies completely changed his outlook on life. Having retired from the kitchen in 2013, he has been focused on his love of mushrooms and has been active in bringing the world of fungi to the masses through his events and courses on just about anything fungi-related. Learn more or get in touch with Robert by visiting thinkfungi.org

Jess is an author, naturalist, herbalist and wild food chef with a Masters of Science degree in Herbal Medicine. She recently published Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager’s Guide to Finding, Identifying and Using More Than 25 Wild Fungi with Countryman Press. Jess has worked as a wild-food consultant and forager for Los Angeles chefs Aitor Zabala of Somni and Niki Nakayama of n/naka. Jess has been teaching wild foods and nature education classes for children and adults since 2014. She founded The Wild Path School, a wild-food apprenticeship and education program, in 2020 that strives to connect the community to nature and the foods we eat in a positive, healing and sustainable way. She also leads immersive foraging adventures, multi-course gourmet wild food dinners and other food-focused experiences on the West Coast, Southwest United States and Mexico. Jess is the editor of The Sporeprint, heads the Mycophagy & Culinary Group (McLAMS) for the NAMA-affiliated Los Angeles Mycological Society, as well as a new board member for the NAMA-affiliated Arizona Mushroom Society. Visit her websites at thewildpath.org and jstarwood.com.

Originally from Cambridge, MA, Dr. Gordon Walker moved to California to attend UC Santa Cruz, where he developed a passion for scubadiving and home brewing. His interest in yeast and fermentation led him a graduate program at UC Davis, where his doctoral research focused on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in wine production. After achieving his PhD, Gordon spent time in New Zealand where he rekindled a childhood interest in mushrooms and began posting pictures of his finds to social media as @fascinatedbyfungi; he now shares his passion for fungi and fermentation with over 2.5 million followers worldwide.