— LaTonya Dover

Well, uh, I think it's like so many other, um, you know, single food, uh, items or ingredients. Uh, we practice, uh, applying certain cooking methods, in particular, dry heat cooking methods like the saute method, uh, which develops browning on the surface of the food. And, uh, browning, uh, equals flavor. Uh, there are other transformations that happen within the food, within the application of heat. Uh, those things, uh, change or shift, uh, the underlying flavor, uh, or taste of that food. Uh, then we start to build on top of that through the use of herbs and spices, uh, and combining, in this case, mushrooms with other ingredients, you know, that can compliment the flavor and the texture, or supplement it, uh, in some way in order to, uh, develop a, uh, a dish. Uh, eventually we would call that a dish. Um, and, uh, salt is typically part of that, uh, as well. Um, uh, salt is, uh, you know, while it, it certainly has, uh, is associated with some health concerns, you know, when consumed in, uh, abundance or excess. Uh, otherwise, the way it functions culinarily is, um, basically it enhances flavors that are already present. And so when used judiciously, um, you know, salt can really bring out the, uh, the enjoyment of food. Um, and when you use salt, really pay attention, really engage with the, the, the, the interplay between salt and the food. We need to taste multiple times during the salting process in order to learn how to season with salt. Uh, there's a learning curve here. It sounds easy, and it, it's, it's simple, but, but it's really not easy. It, it, there's a fine line there that we're, um, you know, that we're, uh, striving for. And the idea is to season right? Until you, uh, can taste that enhancement in the food, but stop before the food tastes salty, okay? And so you're, you're right at this pretty narrow line in the sand, so to speak, okay? When you do that. But you can do it, it takes practice, okay? But that's, but all of those things are part of cooking mushrooms and, um, you know, that is addressed, uh, in, uh, our courses. And then from there, it's practice, um, and experimentation, and applying our curiosity, uh, to develop, uh, you know, new and, and novel foods, at least for, for us and for our audience.