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Do you need to remove the black gills of the portobello mushrooms? I have heard opposite opinions.

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

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This event was on February 25, 2025

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Dan is ready to answer them all.

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Question

Melissa Bryant

Do you need to remove the black gills of the portobello mushrooms? I have heard opposite opinions.

Answer

So you don't need to remove them. They're totally edible, but I typically do, I'll take a spoon and scrape the out the bottom of the portobella to be able to get those black gills off specifically because when you cook the portobella that releases kinda like this black juice everywhere and it just, it doesn't look great. So I typically like just the meaty part of the portobella mushroom instead and will remove the gills. The gills also have kind of a very earthy flavor, umami flavor to them, um, which can be a little overbearing. So I typically will remove them, but they absolutely don't have to be, and a lot of people will keep them in just depending on the function you're using them for.

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

*Dan Marek* is a chef educator who has been teaching vegan and vegetarian cooking for over 15 years. At Rouxbe, he is our Director of Plant-Based Culinary and Development where he helps develop content, classes and builds courses for many of our partners. Dan is a board member of Slow Food Austin, the Institute of Child Nutrition, and Conscious Capitalism. He has earned his BA in Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and holds certificates in Nutrition from Cornell University. Prior to his role with Rouxbe, Dan worked with Whole Kids Foundation training teachers and food service at schools across the country on nutrition and culinary best practices. He also worked as a Healthy Eating Educator at Whole Foods Market’s flagship store in Austin, TX, was a personal chef for some of Austin’s elite business people, taught classes in culinary techniques at Austin Community College, The Natural Epicurean, and Le Cordon Bleu. Dan also regularly volunteers cooking or speaking about nutrition for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Marathon Kids, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin and Central Texas.