The mushroom that went to space

Want to hang with the world's top chefs? [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi everyone, [Kate Krader]( here. I’m food editor at Pursuits in New York but also in the process of packing my bags and pots, pans, and knives and moving to London. Yes, London, the epicenter of my news feed. Not just for the [recent heat wave](, with Buckingham Palace guards being [bottle-fed water]( and warnings [that train tracks could buckle](. Earlier this week, the UK capital was also home to one of the biggest nights in the foodie stratosphere: the [World’s 50 Best Restaurant awards](. The winning team at this year’s No.1, Geranium, including chef Rasmus Kofoed, front and center. Photographer: Claes Bech-Poulsen [There are a hundred million food world awards now,]( but the 50 Best has, for me, always been the fun one—what the Golden Globes were with drunk celebrities cheersing, [before controversy hit](. It’s also been the awards that the world’s most famous chefs would actually show up for. If you had a time machine and could take yourself back to 2015, for instance, you would find yourself in London in the grand medieval palace [Guildhall](, like you were a 15th century lady or lord. You would cheek kiss [Rene Redzepi and the Noma gang](, wave at [Heston Blumenthal](, and see the Roca brothers all suited up and ready to go win the No. 1 spot for their Girona, Spain, restaurant [El Celler de Can Roca](. That’s what the World’s 50 Best awards have always felt like: fun and immediate, but also major. After all, 50 Best is what put Noma and [Copenhagen’s culinary scene on the map]( for most people, after they first were crowned with the top place in 2010—and their phones promptly blew up. Winner, winner, home-cooked dinner: Noma now sells a smoked mushroom garum for your own kitchen ambitions. Photographer: Noma Projects Also, the awards are relatively short. The actual event is done in a little over an hour, and you’re off to the after parties and after after parties. But what does being a “best restaurant” even mean now? A lot of people think these awards are meaningless or worse, highlighting kitchens where chefs turn a blind eye to bad behavior. Eleven Madison Park, which seemingly [features in a negative headline]( every other week, is a [former No. 1 restaurant](and now sits on the “Best of the Best” list. Rumors abound of voters that get free meals and vote accordingly. The restaurant that took the top prize from Noma this year, [Geranium](, is another high-minded dining room in Copenhagen that’s impossible to get into despite it being located in a football stadium. One of the best dishes I’ve ever eaten: Sukchae (celery root with hazelnut cream and caviar) at Atomix, which won the Hospitality Award this year. Photographer: Zack DeZon/Bloomberg All those points are well taken—especially any malignant kitchen environment—but I’m here to cheerlead for the World’s 50 Best, or at least the 50 Best effect. Dining rooms might be full but restaurants, even many at the top end, are struggling to come back from the pandemic, along with inflationary food costs. [Noma can’t even turn a profit]( on a $700 lunch menu plus government bailouts; it reported its first loss since 2017. I’m here for restaurant wish lists: On mine when I get to London, Papa L’​​​​s Kitchen and its seared scallops with chorizo and smoked paprika relish. Photographer: Emli Bendixen for Bloomberg Pursuits News that brings in more people to a dining room, or a city, is good with me. And even if the very top of this year’s list doesn’t change much, there are a lot of new names. Mexico City has as many entries—six—as Paris does. The Hospitality Award went to [Atomix in New York]( and is the best service I’ve ever experienced; 50 Best got it so right. If more diners are going to travel to[one of the world’s more interesting food destinations]( right now, that’s A-OK with me. In this heat, I’m also down with frozen drink wish lists. Source from left: Purple People Eater (Thief); Get Shislik’d (Laser Wolf) (Photographer: Michael Persico); and the Grasshopper (Emmett’s on Grove) The Magnificent Mushroom Special Space is another place on my mind. Last week, a microbe discovered in a Yellowstone National Park hot spring was rocketed into orbit by SpaceX. Like something out of a sci-fi movie, the fast-growing fungus, called Fy, is being tested as a food source for future space exploration. Down on Earth, a company called Nature’s Fynd is pushing it out as the [plant-based solution to world hunger](. The protein- and fiber-packed fungus is capable of being adapted into sausages and noodles and nutritious shakes with minimal environmental footprint. I don’t always pay attention to space, but I do know about Fy because it also happens to be on the menu at Le Bernardin in New York—full circle moment, No. 44 on this year’s 50 Best list. If you order the cheese cake or risotto at Le B, you’ll taste the Nature’s Fynd cream cheese. It’s probably the closest [any of us will ever get to orbit](. But there may be a way to approximate the experience, as highlighted in our special mushroom section [in Businessweek this week](. Fantastic fungi for your kitchen table, medicine cabinet, and even your closet. Illustration: Cynthia Kittler [Make ’Shroom at the Table: Five Fungi Worth Cooking Now]( Quality—as well as supply—of fresh mushrooms year-round is catching up to demand. [With Magic Mushrooms, Small Businesses Lead, Hoping Laws Will Follow]( An underground economy is thriving as laws around the illegal fungi loosen. Here’s how businesses are rushing to take advantage of the changing paradigms on psilocybin. [Five-Star Mushroom Hunting Programs Are Newest Amenity at Top Hotels]( In-depth foraging experiences at the most luxurious hotels on Earth are a chance to learn the secrets of the fungus among us. [Mushroom Leather May Be Most Viable Vegan Alternative to Cowhide]( Mycelial leather has all of the versatility of animal hide without any of the baggage. [Mushroom-Based Steak Maker Meati Raises $150 Million in Funding]( Meati Foods, a maker of mushroom-based steaks and chicken cutlets, said it raised $150 million in new funding. What else I’ve been consuming. - [Don’t fool around with breakfast tacos!]( Rachel Monroe’s New Yorker article is a sharp look at restaurants struggling with inflation in small-town Texas and adjusting portion size instead of price.  - One email I’m always eager to open is Alicia Kennedy’s weekly newsletter. The Puerto Rico-based writer’s intense dives into amorphous subjects like sustainability are simultaneously smart and sharp and funny. A recent missive, [On Good Food](, gets you thinking about not-great job capitalism is doing keeping people fed around the world. - Maybe it’s a job hazard—when you eat out at restaurants five times a week, you hear the word ‘diet’ a lot. But you rarely hear anything substantive beyond people saying they’re going on one. The new podcast from Bloomberg Prognosis, Losing It, is a must-listen, goings deep on multiple threads from how bogus calorie counts are to [the formula behind fad diets like South Beach](. So, you had some questions ... So here’s some answers! Keep them coming for next week via our [Bloomberg Pursuits Instagram]( and [e-mail](mailto:daydreams@bloomberg.net?I%20have%20a%20question). How do you find restaurant gems before they become popular and unbookable? An excellent question, especially right now, [when every single restaurant seems to be booked weeks out](. You can be intrepid and keep your eye on social media for what’s coming and then be discerning in the places you pick. (Try to go to all of them and you’ll burn out quick.) Once they’re popular enough to be basically unbookable, here’s a pro tip: Talk to the host in person. Restaurants will often open their books past the dates available online for people who make the effort. But here’s a better pro tip: Forget the hustle entirely. The best thing you can do is [make yourself a regular at the places that are your gems](. Be nice to the person at the host stand. Eat early or late when it’s a little slower. Bar seats are the best. And tip well—of course, you do that anyway. Restaurants are more than food: they have the power to make a new city feel like home. Illustration: Bráulio Amado; Photographer: Howard Chua-Eoan What’s your analysis of the recent Michelin star distribution in Dubai? I’ve never been to Dubai, so I don’t know how good [the restaurants on the list]( are. But I have some sense because the two-stars and several of the one-stars are outposts of chain restaurants in high-net-worth cities around the world. Michelin has a type, and their type is fancy French/Italian/Japanese players who do very pretty, very expensive food. I’m hearing so much about the great international food scene in Dubai, which I don’t see reflected here. But shout out to a couple original places on the list, namely Il Woodfire, Trèsind Studio, and the place that I’m especially enchanted by, Orfali Bros Bistro. The dining room at Al Muntaha, which won a Michelin star. Source: Al Muntaha Have more questions? Connect with me on [Twitter]( and [Instagram]( @kkrader. And next week! The definition of wealth has changed over generations. Join us virtually or in-person in Singapore on Aug. 4 at the Bloomberg Asia Wealth Summit as we gather leading investors, economists and money managers to cut through the jargon and bring actionable intelligence to private investors and family offices. [Register here]( to hear from international investor and author Jim Rogers, leaders from Nomura, Pictet and more. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Pursuits newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](