Program Schedule
Main Room
Friday, January
Saturday, January
Sunday, January
Mushrooms 101 Schedule
Friday, January
Saturday, January
Sunday, January
About Our Speakers
Dr. Tom Bruns
Tom Bruns is Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, and recently was president of the Mycological Society of America. His lab focuses on the ecology and evolution of mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi form symbiotic associations with plant roots, and this interaction represents one of the most widespread and important mutualisms in terrestrial ecosystems. The Bruns Lab is also working to catalogue and voucher the macrofungi of Point Reyes National Seashore and Yosemite National Park. This work is a collaborative project with trained members of the general public, with several members of local mushroom clubs participating.
Although much of Bruns' work involves lab-based molecular methods, he has conducted field work on fungi in Calfornia forests in the Sierra, the White Mountains, the Northern Channel Islands and Point Reyes National Seashore, and has recently worked in pine forests in North Carolina and Mexico, spruce forests in Alaska, and Dipterocarp forests in Borneo. He teaches courses on fungal biology, mushroom identification, and forest pathology, and has advised and trained 16 PhD students and 18 postdoctoral associates.
David Arora
David Arora is an American mycologist and author. He has written several books and articles, the best known of which are Mushrooms Demystified and All That the Rain Promises, and More. Most recently he was a major contributor to a special ethnomycological issue of Economic Botany, a journal published by the New York Botanical Garden.
David founded the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair in 1975. His interests range from mushroom harvest and usage around the world to mushroom ecology, taxonomy, cuisine, foraging culture and storytelling. All of these subjects are likely to be touched upon during "The Wheel of Fungi." The Saturday and Sunday presentations have the same title but will not cover the same material. David says of them:"Without giving too much away, I will be giving something away."
Todd Spanier
Todd Spanier loves nothing more than to seek out morels, porcini, huckleberries, you name it — as long as it's wild. His business, run from his grandfather's Colma warehouse, is to gather wild foods and get them into markets and restaurants.
His white chef's coat is embossed with "Purveyor of Wild Edibles," and his morels wind up on tables at Oliveto and Chez Panisse. Burlingame's Ecco was his first mushroom customer, when he was just 16. His "King of Mushrooms" nickname started as a family joke, the title bestowed on whoever found the biggest mushroom that day. For his business, Spanier taps into a network of 3,000 pickers who follow the mushroom seasons from Southern California to Alaska.
Christopher Hobbs
Christopher Hobbs, LAc, AHG, is a fourth-generation herbalist and third-generation botanist whose life-long passion for plants was sparked at the age of 5, and then discovered mushrooms at 23. After 40 years of actively teaching and learning about the natural world, he is still ardently listening to what the plants and fungi have to teach.
The author of 25 books on health and herbal medicine, a licensed acupuncturist with more than 15 years of clinical experience, Hobbs is now a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley in the plant sciences, especially evolutionary biology, biochemistry, botany, and ethnobotany.
Jozseph Schultz
Watching Jozseph Schultz cook is similar to watching a theatrical performance as he creatively combines mushrooms with fresh ingredients and spices from around the world. It is also a learning experience as he incorporates stories and food anthropology acquired from his travels, especially in Bali and Turkey.
He created the concept and ran one the most popular restaurants, India Joze, here in Santa Cruz for 25 years. He works now as a personal chef, caters special events, and leads culinary travel tours.
He is a perennial fixture at our annual Fungus Fair, selling his fungal creations and providing exciting demonstrations of his culinary art. To try some of his creative food go to: http://www.indiajoze.com/recipes.html.
Bob Wynn
Growing up on a farm in upstate New York, my job of making mashed potatoes for Sunday dinner began my love for food and tools. Nothing like newly-dug spuds, butter, cream and a Sunbeam Mixmaster to whip them to perfection. As a child, I also enjoyed hunting mushrooms with my aunt. It wasn't until we moved to Santa Cruz in 1985, that I discovered the Promised Land of mushrooms. My wife Doreen, gave me as a birthday present — David Arora's mushroom ID class. We went foraging and came across a lawn-ornament sized Porcini. I knew then, we had come to the right place. Ever since, I have been cooking for club events and the Fungus Fair.