Food & Drink
Homemade in Seattle: A Fungus Lover’s Cookbook
By Seattle Mag October 18, 2011
Seattle-based photographer Stephanie Joy Billmayer, 29, shared these photos of her recent homemade project, a book of mushroom recipes called ‘Fungiculture.’
Because the book seems to celebrate both craftiness and cooking with fresh produce, I figured it might be of interest to Seattle mag readers.
To make the book, first, Stephanie bought a vintage Good Housekeeping Cookbook (above) from a local used bookstore and had it rebound.
I guess she didn’t need those other pesky recipes. No mushrooms? No mercy!
Then she shopped, purchasing a variety of mushrooms from local grocery stores, farmers markets and produce stands.
I must say, I would not consider touching some of these without outside advice, let alone eat them.
However, using natural light and old cutting boards for backgrounds, Stephanie captures something quite beautiful in these gnarly forms.
Finally, she asked friends and family members to contribute recipes for each mushroom. She handwrote those recipes (nice touch) and pasted them into the book.
A few sample pages:
A simple idea nicely executed makes all the difference. This would be such a cool gift idea for a single ingredient-obsessed chef in your life.
Note to friends: my book should feature cheese. Or any product where cheese is a main ingredient.
To learn more about Stephanie’s work, you can visit her website, where she showcases a variety of photography projects.
If you know any crafty Seattleites working on homemade projects worth bragging about, let me know. Write to bond.huberman(at)tigeroak.com.