Program Schedule
Main Room
Saturday
| 11:00-12:30 | ||
| 1:00-2:30 | ||
| 3:00-4:30 |
Sunday
| 11:00-12:30 | ||
| 1:00-2:30 | ||
| 3:00-4:30 |
Mushrooms 101 Schedule
Saturday, January 9
| 10:30-11:30 | ||
| 1:30-2:30 | ||
| 3:00-4:00 |
Sunday, January 10
| 10:30-11:30 | ||
| 12:00-1:00 | ||
| 1:30-2:30 | ||
| 3:00-4:00 |
About Our Speakers
Jack Czarnecki
Uber wild mushroom chef Jack Czarnecki is a featured speaker at the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. Jack will demonstrate mushroom dishes from a fine dining perspective and tell tales from a lifetime in the professional kitchen. Jack and his wife, Heidi, took over the Joel Palmer House in Dayton, Oregon in 1996. The critically acclaimed menu revolves around wild mushrooms and locally sourced foods from the Willamette Valley area. Prior to that they were third-generation proprietors of Joe’s Restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania. Now a fourth generation of Czarneckis can be found in the woods and in the kitchen at the Joel Palmer House.
Jack is the author of Joe’s Book of Mushroom Cookery (Athenaeum, 1986, paperback, 1988), A Cook’s Book of Mushrooms (Artisan, 1995) winner of the 1996 James Beard Award, and Portobello Cookbook (Artisan, 1997).
Upon moving to Oregon, Jack developed an interest in the Oregon White Truffle, Tuber gibbosum. He will share tips and myths about cooking and using truffles, real and synthetic truffle oils, and how to tell the difference. He now produces the country’s only domestic white truffle oil, www.oregontruffleoil.com. Other information can be found at: Joel Palmer House.
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.
Tom Volk
Tom Volk is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he teaches courses on General Mycology, Medical Mycology, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Advanced Mycology, Food & Industrial Mycology (with S.N. Rajagopal), Organismal Biology, Latin & Greek for Scientists, as well as Plant Biology. In the summer of 2003, he received the William H. Weston award for Excellence in Teaching Mycology.
Dr. Volk is a sought-after lecturer for amateur mushroom clubs, and has made presentations for several years on a variety of topics. He has a special sense of humor, which will be apparent to you when you visit his website: http://tomvolkfungi.net/.
