Forest to Table: Learn how foraged foods can add wild flavors to your cooking

We hope you will join us on April 13th for a wild foods cooking class where you’ll learn how to prepare and cook wild ingredients you can find in DC, Maryland, and Virginia during the early spring. Wild plants offer electrifying tastes of a time and place – hyperlocal, super seasonal, and nothing like typical produce from big-box grocery stores.  Registration in advance is required.  Click here to register.

Two experienced local foragers, food writer Nevin Martell and chef Iulian Fortu, are teaming up to share their secrets about cooking with three wild ingredients commonly found in the region during the springtime. You’ll get a primer on when, where, and how to harvest morel mushrooms, ramps, and garlic mustard, followed by a culinary demonstration, where you’ll learn the best techniques for storing, prepping, and cooking with them – and get a chance to try three dishes crafted by chef Iulian, who will share the recipes for you to take home. 

After the lecture and cooking demo, you will have the opportunity to purchase ingredients from Foraged, a community marketplace of foragers, farmers, and artisan food producers offering unique specialty ingredients. Guests will receive 20% off items purchased at the event.

Nevin Martell is a D.C. food and travel writer-photographer whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, National Geographic, AARP, Travel + Leisure, and many other publications. He has been writing about foraging for over a decade, leading him to hunt for chanterelles in the wilds of Vancouver Island, search for morels with the Inn at Little Washington's Patrick O'Connell, and go looking for wild Blue Ridge truffles outside Asheville, NC.

Iulian Fortu is a chef, forager with a life-long passion for food which he loves to share with others through workshops, foraging walks, cooking classes, and private dinners. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he has worked at the acclaimed Noma restaurant in Copenhagen and has been a speaker and instructor for the Mycological Association of Washington and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. A professional forager certified to sell wild mushrooms, he is purveyor to many notable fine restaurants in DC, including Reverie, Oyster Oyster, Bresca, and The Dabney. 

Note: Incorrectly identified or improperly prepared wild foods can cause GI distress, injury, or even death. All of the ingredients used for this class will be sourced and prepared by chef Iulian, so you can be assured they are both correctly identified and properly prepared. 

Tickets are priced to ensure this educational event is accessible to all. Please consider donating to Les Dames DC’s grants and scholarships fund to support our mission to nurture the careers of women in the culinary and hospitality fields.
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