(sassy rock music) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

You ever gone out into the woods and find stuff to eat?

You know, mushrooms, morels, I don't know, alligators, who knows, all this stuff, right?

Do you know what's good and what's not?

Well, our guest does, Cate Meade from Arlington Heights.

How you doing?

- I'm well, Rob.

How are you doing?

- You ever find an alligator out there?

- No, no, only in Florida, in the South.

(both laugh) - You're from Arlington Heights up there by Chicago.

That's where you live now, correct?

- Yes, I do.

- Yeah.

We had you on last week.

We talked all about how you were a contestant on "MasterChef" with Gordon Ramsay.

- Yep.

- Thousands, tens of thousands, maybe 100,000 people went out.

You went down to number four.

- Yeah.

- Something to be incredibly, incredibly proud of.

- Yes.

- And you did it by wowing Gordon Ramsay with stuff that you grew you knew how to cook.

- Mm-hm.

- Yeah.

- (laughs) He liked your venison.

- He liked my venison, yes.

And I did, like when there was an opportunity to bring something from, you know, that I was familiar with in the wild, I was like, "Ooh, can we get this?"

or, you know, "What's in season?"

- Well, let's go back to when you were growing up.

Let's go back to like when you would go hunting with your dad.

You went what, turkey hunting?

- That was the first thing I started hunting, yeah, turkey, pheasant, and quail.

- Yeah, and you said that your dad's an amazing person, but maybe not the greatest turkey hunter.

- Oh yeah.

To this day, he's not a good turkey hunter, but thankfully I got better at turkey hunting for us, and so he's a better hunter through me now.

- But when you were hunting and not finding any turkeys to shoot, you would start looking around for other stuff?

- Yes, so, you know, when you start out hunting, and especially to younger years, you know, you don't expect to just go out and harvest everything, you know, or big animals.

And so there's just a lot of, you know, low points, and it's a good lesson to learn in life.

But when I was at those low lows after like waking up three days in a row at 4:00 AM, probably earlier, to get to our stand at 5:00 'cause we had to drive an hour- - [Rob] Oof.

- Yeah, so, three days of that at like 10 or 11, you know, you're low.

So they would take me out finding morels.

So we'd take a bucket and look for elm trees and then just find loads of 'em, and it would take all the gloomies away.

- My wife and I, one of our favorite things to do is go shed hunting.

So when the deer drop their antlers, we go shed hunting.

- The best.

- And I'm decent.

- Yeah.

- And Emily's good too.

Morels, we can't find them.

If a morel was right here, I couldn't find it.

- It's just one of those things, like every year it happens to me, and it's just one of these things where you have to train your eye.

And it's almost like, once you find a morel, I've passed morels 10 times and then just bent down and looked, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh."

And then once you see that one, they all start popping out because like this ring, there's colors from the old leaves, you know?

And then there's all this new growth of green coming everywhere, and so it's just colors.

And then like sometimes the stalks are lighter.

Sometimes the stalks are higher.

Sometimes the caps are darker.

They might be black morels or yellow morels.

So you just have to like wait till that day in that moment where you can actually see how it works with the... - Have you seen that they sell glasses?

(laughs) They're supposed to make you see 'em easier.

- I think there is some truth to that because you can, with just like the lens, some colors will pop more than others, you know?

So I think it just helps dull some colors and maybe highlight some others.

- So with the morels, do you like the bigger ones or little ones?

- I'm not picky when I find morels.

I like 'em all.

But typically the older ones, they have like, you know, more bugs and, you know, might be a little... - [Rob] Earthier.

- Earthier.

- Yeah.

Now, you find one.

I've heard two different things.

Like you pluck 'em straight up or cut 'em?

I don't know, what do you do?

- The thing is with all mushrooms, they're fruiting bodies of the mycelium.

So it's like think of an apple tree, and the apples are the fruiting bodies.

- Okay.

- So by picking it, you're not actually causing harm unless you're, you know, ripping it out, you know, breaking off, damaging of the tree, which would be in the mushroom sense, the mycelium, which is like the roots.

- Oh, of course, mycelium.

Mycelium, you don't wanna mess with that mycelium.

- You don't wanna mess with it.

So the best thing to do is to, if you are gonna pull it out of the ground, to just twist and not yank it 'cause you don't wanna just disturb so much soil.

- [Rob] Okay.

- But besides that, like, whether you cut it or, you know, twist it out, I don't think it matters anything.

- So you're a world-class chef, so I'm sure you're doing like- - I did not say that.

- Gordon did, yes.

You're doing stuff with it.

But like for Frank that goes out there and finds a mess of morels, I mean, what do they use?

Just like fry 'em up?

- Yeah, just like, hot pan.

I like to, if they're big, slice 'em in half, you know?

It's also nice to slice 'em in half and see if there's any bugs, creepy crawlies in there.

But just butter, pan.

Some people, you know, if you wanna get crazy, you could add some garlic or some thyme, but that's just keeping it super simple.

Just saute.

Add a little oil first so that you're not browning or burning your butter, but just simple.

- Yeah.

- The mushrooms will taste so good too.

- I mean, morels are morels, right?

But there's a lot of mushrooms out there in the woods that you can eat.

But maybe, tell me, what was it?

The spit and nibble or whatever?

What is it?

- You're good.

The nib and spit.

- Close enough.

- Yeah.

And I didn't coin the term or the process, but I might have shortened it.

It might be nibbles.

I'm not exactly sure.

(Rob laughs) But either way, it's just something you can do when you're an experienced mushroom hunter, and you can identify which species of mushroom it is.

You can do a nibble and spit.

So for Lactarius, Russula, and Boletes, so all of those mushrooms, if you can... - Hey- - Yeah, I know.

- I'm just gonna nod my head.

I'm like, "Oh, yeah, Boletes."

- If you can at least identify those, you know that you can nibble on it and spit it out, and there won't cause any harm, but it's gonna give you a bitter taste or a spicy, peppery taste.

And either those things would be like, you know, undesirable for a chef.

But in certain countries like Eastern European, the Ukraine or Poland, they love to pickle those bitter mushrooms, and it draws the bitterness out of 'em.

- Okay, so- - So they're not like toxic, so it's just like, you know.

- You go through the woods.

You take a mushroom.

You don't know if you can eat it.

You nibble it.

- Nibble it, yeah, with those taste buds of Gordon Ramsay, get that all in your palate and distinguish, you know, if it's peppery, spicy, or if it's just like mild.

Then you know if it's mild, it's good.

- Okay.

- Put it in the basket.

- So you got morels.

What's a chicken of the woods?

You hear people that- - Chicken of the woods?

Yes, beautiful mushroom.

- It's orange, isn't it?

- Orange, yeah, associated with oak trees.

There's Lactarius sulphureus, which has a yellow under-bottom.

And then the other one, I can't think of it for some reason.

It'll come to me- - Is there one that's a definite no-no, you're gonna be seeing "Alice in Wonderland" type of thing?

- The death cap.

- The death cap?

- Yeah, also the deadly Galerina.

It's not good.

- I would stay away from those too.

- Yep.

(Rob laughs) Yeah.

With mushrooms, it's just something where you have to get to know them, and it's not like something that you're like, "Oh, I need to take this home and eat it."

It's just like, hey, you know, see it every once in a while, you know, and get to know it.

Take it home, do a spore print, and then see where it's growing, see what it's associated with, maybe what it's associated growing with, like other mushrooms, other trees, you know?

A lot of mushrooms are associated with trees, you know, so in morels, you're looking for elm trees, not necessarily morels on the ground, you know, so.

- What about the puffballs?

- Puffballs are so fun.

So chicken of the woods and puffballs, I remember when I was little finding them and being like, "No way these are edible."

- They get huge.

- And they are, yeah.

- Yeah, you just slice 'em up.

- Slice 'em up.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the puffballs.

I don't feel like they have a really great... Like, the texture is very spongy where it's not like a chewy.

It's more spongy I think.

But you know, you press it and kind of dry out all that moisture, and then you can get some texture on there, some crunchiness.

And people will turn it into like pizzas or make it into like a flatbread kind of thing, for the puffballs.

- Okay.

- But, yeah.

Oh yeah, I have a present for you.

- What?

Okay.

- Okay.

- What do we got here?

- Part of your birthday gift.

This is a lion's mane mushroom.

- Oh.

- From North Spore.

It's a happy birthday gift.

But you're gonna- - My birthday was yesterday, but that's fine.

- Happy Birthday.

- Yeah, well, thank you.

- But you're gonna take this home, and you're gonna grow mushrooms.

So inside it comes with, we don't have to get it out, but inside it comes with a little spray bottle.

- Okay.

- You can see like little spray bottle on the side here.

I think it's right here.

Oh.

- That's the wrong box.

- Somewhere there.

No, it's in there, but the spray bottle's just a little tiny thing right here.

- Okay.

- And then you're gonna cut this little square out and spray it.

Then the directions are so easy on the back.

It's open, slice, spray, harvest, and enjoy.

- Ooh, that sounds- - But I know.

I know it might be a little complicated for you, but you just spray it twice a day, and then you're gonna grow these giant lion's mane mushrooms.

And these are medicinal and super delicious- - Oh.

- Like, highly prized culinary mushroom, one of my favorites, and it's hard to be a favorite for mushrooms for me, but just an amazing texture.

And then, yeah, there's actually a lot of scientific studies too done on this.

- Like, what's it gonna cure?

- It actually grows, maintains, and repairs nerve and brain cells.

- Oh, I like that.

- Yeah.

So like speaking, like if I ever have like a brain... I take it almost every day, I try to.

Like I'm not gonna say I take it every single day, but in a liquid form.

Super good for cognitive, memory.

It's got nerve growth factor, NGF, and that's what the studies have been done on.

But it's good for mood, sleep, digestion.

It's like one of those crazy mushrooms.

You know, there's five mushrooms that are super medicinal for you, and it's reishi, cordyceps, lion's mane, turkey tail, and chaga.

- Oh.

- And- - No death anything in those.

- No.

- Yeah.

- But lion's mane is the only one that's super good eating out of all of those, you know?

So it's just one of those rare mushrooms that it's just like, mm, chef's kiss.

- I could use that 'cause I've already forgotten who you are.

- Tell me about it.

(Rob laughs) - Do you find that, I mean, if people have like woods in their backyard or are able to access woods, I mean they've gotta just be like constantly asking you questions.

- Oh yeah.

- Like, "What can I do?

What can I eat?"

- All the time I get emails, text messages, like, "I found this mushroom.

Can I eat it?"

And that's like really their only concern, is like, "Can I eat it?"

And I'm like, "Don't you wanna know about it?

Like it's-" - No.

- I was like, "That's a false parasol."

It's like the one that's not edible, but like it's, you know, the parasols could be growing close, you know?

- Tell me about the woman that you saved from eating- - Oh, which one?

- Oh.

(laughs) From eating a bad one.

- Oh yeah, she was trying to eat a Jack O'Lantern.

How funny is that, ah!

A Jack O'Lantern mushroom it's called, and it's an orange mushroom.

And she thought it was a chanterelle, and chanterelles grow micorrhizally, which means in the ground, and associated with trees, but not on trees.

And the Jack O'Lanterns grow on dead or decaying wood, and they also have gills.

And then the chanterelles have false gills.

So there's just so many little tricky, you know, things that you just really have to be paying attention to.

And that's like Mother Nature, you know?

- You do realize that you just light up when you're talking about fungus.

- I know, well, it's exciting because there's just so many little things, you know, where it'll try to catch you and kill you, (laughs) but it's also delicious.

But if you just know those little things, you know?

They are kind of like, they're meant to trick some people, you know, by the eye, by the color, you know what I mean?

But you need to use all of your instincts like kind of like with hunting and foraging.

Yeah, it all comes together.

- Do you hunt much?

- I do.

I love hunting.

I love fishing.

I love foraging.

The closer I can get to my food source and know the beginning stages, the better I'm gonna be as a chef, the better I'll understand the ingredients, the more I respect it.

So many life lessons have come from growing and harvesting my own food.

And then the fact that it's like, you know, my medium, so to speak, my tools.

- It's what you truly enjoy.

- It's what I enjoy.

- You can tell.

You can tell.

- Hey, thanks for seeing that.

- When somebody sits in that chair, you can tell when you ask 'em something, and they get that look in their eye.

- It's like- - That crazy, yeah.

(laughs) - Well, I wasn't gonna say that.

- Oh, honey, I can.

That's okay.

(Rob laughs) - But that is what their true passion is.

- I do love it, and I thank you for seeing that.

- What are you hunting?

- I'm in the Midwest, so everything in the Midwest.

When it's close to me, I wanna get to know it and- - [Rob] And eat it.

(laughs) - And eat it.

No, more in a respectful way though.

Like, I don't ever over-harvest.

I never wanna like, you know... A goal is not like tagging out.

It's just to like get what I need, like, you know, harvest for myself and my family.

I love to share, you know, everything.

You know, it's like part of I think being a chef.

- Well, I think you're fine on deer and turkeys and ducks, and you can shoot as many as you want.

- In the Midwest, we're so blessed, right?

- I think we're good there.

(laughs) - We're so good, but I haven't hunted any elk or moose yet.

I really wanna go out west.

I wanna start to explore a little bit more, but I only harvest anything I can eat.

Like, I'm not gonna hunt for sport or anything like that.

- [Rob] Elephant?

- No, no desire.

- I never got the safari thing, I don't know.

- Yeah, it's like, I think there's, you know, in Africa, like a lot of hunters, you know, basically support or fund the fact that there are wild animals still, but for me, it's no desire, you know?

I would rather donate to animals, you know what I mean?

You know, donate to that same organization that they are, but I don't even do it.

- You know, everybody has their... And like the canned hunting, I don't know.

You know, if people wanna do that, I guess it's their thing.

- No, I enjoy the chase.

I enjoy the hard work, and I enjoy the reward of like the food.

Like, I wanna see it.

- Every time we shoot a deer and taste it, I'm like, "Why don't I shoot more of these?"

- They're so good.

Especially, again, we are so lucky in the Midwest because people don't- - Yeah.

- Know it.

- We have hunters that come in from Virginia, and they'll bring some of their venison.

It tastes horrible.

- Yeah.

- They've been eating pine needles and stupid stuff.

- Yeah, no, it does make a big difference.

- I think you should like look for some animal that nobody else can make taste good, and you should challenge... You should shoot a snow goose and make it taste good, maybe an Asian carp.

Make it taste good.

- I will.

I can.

I have.

I have done Asian carp before.

- Really?

- Yeah, and geese, goose.

- Gooses.

Well, I mean, a Canada goose is good, but like those snows or maga-nee-ser, merganser.

- You know, when it comes to like those like kind of foul-tasting meats, soaking them or, soaking, brining, but using a liquid brine either in milk.

Milk has casein in it, which is like a milk fat or protein that will actually grab and take some of those foul odors that you smell and taste.

- How do you know all this stuff?

- Long, long... I'm old.

- This is what you do.

- Yeah, (laughs) yeah.

But salt and milk will help draw that out.

- Tell me about cooking for your brother.

He's a fireman?

- Oh yeah, my brother's a fireman for the Chicago Fire Department, and from time to time, I will... Sometimes he does the cooking there too, but they all have like, you know, different shifts.

Not one person's the cook.

But I'll come in sometimes and just take over the kitchen.

I go and shop the ingredients, kind of like what I do for my weekly clients, but I do a dinner for 12 firemen and then dessert.

And they are so fun, like the comradery and just smack talking and- - What?

- What?

(Rob laughs) But, yeah.

And then, you know, sometimes they go on calls, and it's just so cool to see them (snaps) just fly into action and- - Probably right when you get everything set in front of 'em.

- One time it was like that where some of them, because not all of them have to go every time, you know?

But like, yeah, they have different things.

So one time there was a call that was right close to dinner, and then I just donated another to a fireman.

It was another fireman charity where I'm gonna do that too.

So I'm gonna show up to a different firehouse like in Chicago, somebody that I don't know who it hasn't happened yet, some lucky winner.

- You talk about like your clients.

So you are cooking for private, right?

- Yeah, yeah, so, I have clients that I do like dinner parties for sometimes on like repeat, like on every year.

But I do cook for a few clients on a weekly basis in home where I shop the groceries, show up to their house, and prepare four meals for them and then clean up, label, store, and fly out of there.

- So they wanna eat good once a week.

They give you a call.

- No, it's like for the whole week, you know, but I come one time.

- Oh, I gotcha.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Okay, all right.

And do you enjoy doing that, going into other people's houses?

- I love it, yeah.

- Do you look through their stuff?

- No, no, not at all, no, and some of these clients have been, you know, with me forever, not forever, but so to speak, a long time.

And the fact that I get to nourish them, and they enjoy my food, I can hear their feedback and all of the things.

I like love their dogs and, you know, everything, every animal or, you know, just them in general.

I enjoy them.

If I didn't, I wouldn't go back.

- You're a chef, obviously a good one.

I mean, I always wonder because everybody's tastes are different, right?

Something that I think is the most amazing food in the world, other person will absolutely hate.

Does it hurt your feelings when you go to a lot of work with stuff, and they're like, "Eh, no"?

- No, I mean, no, no, it doesn't hurt your feelings.

I think chefs are their own hardest critics, so if you know something is wrong, and somebody calls you out on it, it's like, you know, something you already knew.

But if somebody has a different opinion that is due to their lack of a good palate, I mean, I can't take offense to that.

(laughs) Yeah, there's just not enough experience, or, you know, they don't maybe like those flavors, you know?

- Yeah.

- But no offense taken.

- How far will you go?

- How far?

- What happens when you get a family here in Peoria that says, "Come down and cook for me"?

- Oh, I travel.

So there is no distance I won't travel as long as you pay for the travels, yeah.

- What if a family in New Zealand... - I travel on tour.

I go to hunt clubs across the US cooking for a bunch of guys and girls.

- How do you get hooked up with that?

- I love it, just through what I do, people seeing.

You know, I share a lot of hunting and wild game recipes and have been doing it.

But, yeah, the word travels, and I've gotten to cook for a lot of cool people.

- I have a hunt camp.

- Hey, I'll come cook for you.

(laughs) - But our hunters are, honestly, they're not that bright, so I don't know if I wanna subject you to that, yeah.

- No, I totally, that's the thing about, for me when I'm at hunt clubs, it's like being with the group of the firemen, you know?

It's just like you're in- - [Rob] Smack talking.

- Yeah, and it's like, for me, it's like home, you know?

It's like if it wasn't like that, I'd be like, "Are you guys feeling okay?

You know, let me get in there and stir some stuff up."

But no, I love it.

And the guys too, they're just like, "Who is this girl that can cook so good?

You know, she's awesome to hang out with."

You know, like a couple times, like they've been shooting in the back, and I jump in with my chef clothes on, "Pew, pew, pew," and then jump back in, and it's like, "Is this my job?

Somebody pitch me," you know?

- Are you a good shot?

- I mean, my dad would say yes.

Yes, I am a good shot.

I would say yes too, but, no, I just did that, yeah, I did.

- Let's prove it.

- I would love to prove it to you.

- PBS would not.

- No, I really would have.

- No, no, we're just gonna take the word for it.

- It's something I do like to practice a lot, and I've been doing it.

My dad is very, he has like two shooting clubs that he goes to on a weekly basis.

- Oh really?

- And sometimes I join him.

- Well, if you could wave a wand and get whatever you wanted, what would you be doing in, let's say, five years?

- Oh, I would have a huge farm with all the mushrooms and food, and I'd have people coming and learning about how to grow certain things, how to cook it, all of the wild things in the woods.

and how to bring it all together into like one, like, ooh, how to preserve all these cherries and make, you know, pie and jam and all the things, dried mushrooms, and then... Oh, I also brought you some ramp salt.

- This stuff?

- Yeah.

'Cause we were talking about ramps.

Ramps are like the alliums that grow in the spring.

Remember you were telling me you smell them sometimes, I think.

- Oh, oh yeah, yeah.

- Remember that?

- [Rob] Yeah, on a former interview.

- Yeah, you can lick your finger and put it in there.

- Yes, I can.

- 'Cause it's yours.

- I would do it if it wasn't mine.

- Yeah, same.

- You obviously don't watch the show.

- But you can taste a little bit of onion.

- Oh yeah, that's what it is.

I was gonna say garlic, but no, it's onion.

- Yeah, well, it is like, they call it wild garlic too.

But Allium tricoccum is that one, the broadleaf ramp.

- Yeah, now if this is whiskey, they'd be over here.

Yeah, I see you too.

All right, yeah, that's really good.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Oh, that's a finishing salt.

It's Maldon salt, so it's not like, you know, it's got thicker flakes.

- Yeah, do I have it in my beard now?

- No, you look great.

- Okay.

You do a good job with your social media too, which we didn't even talk about, but that goes along with the teaching and that.

So if people want to follow you, where would they go?

- Wild Woods Chef on all platforms and wildwoodschef.com.

- I encourage people to go follow her because we've only virtually met, I don't know, a month ago or whatever, but I've really enjoyed your stuff.

And like I said, the feedback we got from the podcast I was surprised at 'cause I figure a bunch of, you know, hicks and farmers and all that, we knew all the woods.

And everybody's like, "Well, can you eat this or whatever?

Can she do this?"

- You guys know a lot.

You're constantly seeing different... You guys know your trees very well and- - Not well.

- Especially when they're down in your field.

- Well, (laughs) that we know.

- Oh, no, but you're familiar, and your familiar with all the plants, the seasons.

Like, you guys get it, yeah.

So some of my favorite students are farmers.

- Yeah, well, you've got a lot to learn.

Cate Chef Meade.

- I'm a student.

- Thank you so much for being with us.

Really, really appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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