{"id":13085,"date":"2014-09-10T10:29:06","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T14:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=13085"},"modified":"2014-09-10T09:37:48","modified_gmt":"2014-09-10T13:37:48","slug":"on-your-table-all-things-fungi-at-kennetts-mushroom-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=13085","title":{"rendered":"On Your Table: All things fungi at Kennett’s Mushroom Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

While there’s lot to see and do, it comes down to food \u2014 and delicious mushrooms<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Cathy Branciarol<\/strong>i,\u00a0Food Correspondent, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"MushFestFood-2\"<\/a>

Servers having lots of fun at the Ferranto food tent plating up fried mushrooms during this past weekend’s Mushroom Festival.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 People came hungry to the 28th<\/sup> annual Kennett Square Mushroom Festival last weekend and it was a good thing, since at its heart, the event is a food festival.\u00a0 Among the tantalizing treats at the festival\u2019s food tents were portabella mushroom \u201csliders\u201d, crab imperial stuffed mushroom caps, every kind of mushroom soup, fried mushrooms, mushrooms wraps and even mushroom ice cream offered by Woodside Creamery from nearby Hockessin, Delaware.<\/p>\n

I tried not to get distracted by the more than 200 vendors who lined seven blocks of State Street selling everything fungi related as I made my way to the Special Events tent, where area restaurants competed for the honor of having the best Mushroom Soup in the Brandywine Valley.<\/p>\n

\"MushFestFood-1\"<\/a>

Mushroom soup contest winners from Desmond Hotel, Kevin Kessler, chef assistant Erin Ellwanger and chef John Ellwanger<\/p><\/div>\n

In the tent, there was plenty of opportunity to sample the soups being presented.\u00a0\u00a0 The Fire Hill Pub from nearby Toughkenamon offered an all-vegetarian soup featuring Vidalia onions and tarragon, with oyster mushrooms, shitaki mushrooms, crimini\u2019s and portabella\u2019s.\u00a0 Buckley\u2019s Tavern from Centreville, Delaware touted their all-local, all-vegetarian soup and the fact that theirs was gluten free.\u00a0 Capazzoli Caterers\u2019 soup was rich and dense.\u00a0\u00a0 The mushrooms were saut\u00e9ed in bacon fat, then incorporated in a mascarpone cheese-based broth flavored with truffle oil.\u00a0 The Gables Restaurant from Chadd\u2019s Ford proposed a non-cream version,with a soup flavored with thyme, cilantro and oregano.<\/p>\n

Honestly, it was a tough call.\u00a0 But apparently my taste buds were right in line with the popular vote.\u00a0 My favorite soup was from the Desmond Hotel in Malvern, a first time contestant and the competition winner.\u00a0 Kevin Kessler, from the Desmond crew, said that their approach was to let the food do the work.\u00a0 Chef John Ellwanger\u2019s preparation was simple and traditional, with tender mushrooms bathed in a white wine cream sauce.\u00a0 It was awesome.<\/p>\n

During the festival, tens of thousands of visitors jammed the streets of Kennett and fungi activities abounded.\u00a0 A popular stop was the growers tent which highlighted the science behind mushroom farming.\u00a0 It attracted long lines of folks interested in seeing how mushrooms are grown. Members of the industry displayed beds of growing substrate and explained all the stages of growth from preparation of the soil to picking the crop.<\/p>\n

New this year was an Mushroom Appetizer Cook-off which showcased the talents of six amateur finalists who competed in \u201cChopped\u201d fashion before judges including Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture, George Greig, and celebrity chef Christina Verrelli from the Food TV Network\u2019s new show America\u2019s Best Cook<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The 3rd National Fried Mushroom Eating Championship took place on Saturday in the midst of a thunderstorm. Past winner Molly Schuyler returned to defend her world record and broke it by consuming 11 pounds of fried mushrooms from Buona Foods in eight minutes. \u00a0That\u2019s more than one pound of mushrooms per minute.<\/p>\n

Starting with just a few restaurants selling food on a single block, the Mushroom Festival has grown to become Kennett\u2019s biggest event of the year.\u00a0 The mission of the Festival is to educate consumers about the health benefits of mushrooms and to promote tourism in Southern Chester County, all while financially supporting local and regional charities through a grant process. In 2014, the Festival awarded $75,000 to local non-profits from proceeds of last year\u2019s Festival.<\/p>\n

Kennett Square, recently named among America\u2019s coolest small towns, produces 65 percent of mushrooms grown in America. Commercial mushroom production in the United States started in Kennett Square over 100 years ago and with a majority of the United State\u2019s mushroom production centered in the area around the town, its tagline is the \u201cMushroom Capital of the World.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While there’s lot to see and do, it comes down to food \u2014 and delicious mushrooms By Cathy Branciaroli,\u00a0Food Correspondent, The Times KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 People came hungry to the 28th annual Kennett Square Mushroom Festival last weekend and it was a good thing, since at its heart, the event is a food festival.\u00a0 Among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[5177,4613,16,217,5176],"class_list":["post-13085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-featured","tag-contests","tag-food","tag-kennett-square","tag-mushroom-festival","tag-mushrooms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13086,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085\/revisions\/13086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}