The Gastroforaging edition

James Cooper (JC) is a friend of WITI, dedicated music head, ECD at ZOOPERHEISS, and also writes the newsletter Vibesvertising, which explores the relationship between vibes and ideas in advertising. As ever, we are pleased to have him with us today.

James here. A new podcast project has opened my eyes to a whole new world—the world of gastroforaging. (This is a term I have made up.)

The podcast is called The Wild Lunch. Each episode, a comedian (Nico) and a chef (Fred) forage for ingredients, and then cook lunch out in the wild. But not just any lunch. Fred is an incredibly accomplished and talented chef. In fact, it would be more apt to call him a magician. In every episode, he seems to be able to create a restaurant-ready masterpiece from things growing in the UK woods, hedgerows and, in one instance, cracks in the streets of Hackney.

Why is this interesting?

Foraging for wild ingredients has seen a steady increase over the last decades, with a marked increase since the pandemic. It’s happening for a number of reasons. More and more people are demanding transparency, they want to know where their food comes from. They worry about the ingredients of processed food. They like getting out in nature. They like the idea of a free lunch. And long term, there is a shift towards people wanting to be more self-sufficient. There is definitely some sort of prepper cross over vibe.

Up until now, however the scraps have been just that: Scraps. Most of us have picked berries. Some of us pickle things. Maybe the more adventurous of us might dabble with fermentation. But as the general population becomes more obsessed with high-end ingredients and tastes in the food they eat, the same culinary nerdiness is entering the foraging world. As Glamping is to normal camping, why settle for nettles when you can make an absolutely banging high end Chicken Katsu curry with a little (ok, a lot) of know-how.

Each episode follows a formula where Nico doesn’t believe Fred will pull off re-creating one of his favourite dishes. Like any popular entertainment format, you know what’s going to happen: Rocky always wins the fight, Bridget Jones eventually finds love, the home makeover turns out great. In this instance, Fred creates something magical, but it’s the obstacles that make it interesting.

Take the Katsu episode: Like your favourite nerdy professor, Fred lovingly explains that by mixing local herbs and plants in a certain way it’s possible to create the exact same taste as a traditional Japanese Katsu sauce. He gathers fennel seeds, horseradish, clover root, Alexander seeds, and hogweed seeds to create the spice. He uses fermented elderberries to get that umami feeling in the sauce. Some of these plants are distant cousins of plants more commonly found in Asia, others are unlikely building blocks in creating a new taste DNA. Chicken is replaced by foraged Chicken of the Woods mushrooms which, when prepared correctly, taste exactly like a perfectly marinated chicken breast.

Mushrooms, in fact, feature heavily. If you have ever wondered how mushrooms grow, spread, mate, spawn, communicate, power the forest, and are in fact the start of all human life (and sometimes the ending of it), Fred is your man. He simply knows everything about plants. For instance, Japanese Knotweed. This invasive plant has become a pariah plant to middle class Englanders looking to buy a house: It grows everywhere, and you have to have it professionally removed and treated to get home insurance. But of course, in Japan, this same plant is actually considered a superfood. So one day Fred and Nico meet up in Hackney, East London and, much to the local hipsters’ amazement, make a delicious Japanese Knotweed pizza.

Fred and Nico make booze. They make flatbread. They make turnip cake dim sum that looks like some sort of glue-like slurry but seemingly tastes incredible. They are taking foraging into a whole new culinary territory. Fred is the Scottie Pippen of Pickling, the Fred Astaire of Fermentation. It’s joyful to be along for the ride with them.

Before helping out on the podcast, I didn’t know anything about this world, but now when I walk or run in the woods I’m often looking out for things described in the show. Perhaps I’ll build up the courage to have a go myself. Will Gastroforaging become a thing? Who knows? But I have a sneaky feeling that when the time comes, being able to vibe code a D2C brand page in five minutes, post a TikTok, or pick a stock might not be as useful as knowing how to make your own five star dinner from free, natural finds in your local area. (JC)