September 29, 2025 • 9 mins
The mysterious world of professional foraging, roasting the perfect porcini, and our favourite dishes for newcomers to mushrooms. With Ruthie Rogers, Sian Owen and Joseph Trivelli.
Ruthie's Table 4, made in partnership with Moncler.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Welcome to our new bonus series of Ruthie's Table four.
It's September. Feels like we're all sharpening our pencils and
coming back to school after a warm, beautiful summer, and
I'm here with Sean Owen and Joseph Travelli are executive
(00:22):
chefs at the River Cafe. Do you want to tell
us about the ingredients that are coming in? The ones
who were saying hello to the ones we're saying goodbye
to you.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's the stereotypical cook's favorite time of year. I think
pretty much.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, we're going into the chef season now what we
were like autumn? I guess harvest and mushrooms are a
kind of the staple of September. I think they're so
amazing and they're right slap bang start in season now.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Definitely that when I came back from holiday is the
first and I went in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
It was the first thing. It's like, Oh, they're porcini.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So on this episode we're going to talk about porcinion.
Let's just start from the very first thing, which is
how to get one in the country. Would you tell
somebody to pick one.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
You're probably best finding your local mushroom.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
It's not easy to get them, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Funnily enough, yesterday I found myself walking past the vegetop
of an old supplier of ours, so you know, I
won't say hello, and obviously I'm like, it's this time
of year, you know, what about all these mushrooms used
to bring us? You know, because we're in London, we're
brilliantly placed because last year we had the amazing porcini
from Sweden a lot or from Scotland we get them,
or from Italy, you know, or they're supposedly at least
(01:32):
through Italy and you know also from the East. They're
all wonderful, but obviously the best are the local ones
that you get the fast. And he said that he
can't buy them so much anymore because the people that
used to go picking them are now older and he
has this hard work, you know, because everyonthing's it's expensive,
but actually because there's not much in it, you've got
(01:53):
to get up really early. You're competing with all these
people that are just going to pick porgini's because they
want it anyway, like you know, we buy a day off.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
But the old days of someone.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Arriving with a car full of twenty kilos of mushrooms,
he said, it doesn't happen anymore. And that's not because
the nature's.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Changed, it's just the lady used to go to Wimbledon,
common didn't she coming with the porcini? And then we
were always like, well, let's get her followed. We should
follow her so you can find that where she's gay
because we have a chef who and she wouldn't leave
the trail because any reputable mushroom picker is not going to.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Let anyone know.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well, basically we're telling people all about portuini, but they
probably can't get them.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think you could get them where I grew up.
You should buy them, like you can buy them, you know,
it's not impossible.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Yeah, you can come and eat them with the River Cafe.
Yeah right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You're supposed to not pick any mushrooms unless you really
know what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, so let's talk about what we're cooking. But were
you cooked to know with the portuini?
Speaker 5 (02:49):
So I had them on the menu three times.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I had them thinny lives and raw on top of
the beef carpaco this season with olive on and lemon
and a bit of fresh parmesan shaved on top.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I had them slow cooked down to a.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
Real sludge, really strong, slow cooked down with pappadelli, fresh pappadelli,
and then I had them on with the grouse roasted
whole with the burrello brescata.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
So you could have a three course.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
But for the home cook somebody who might be listening
at home, what do I do when I get them home?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
How do I clean a.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
P I would say, if they've got a lot of
mud on them, dried mud or the ground, do you
want to resist the eyge to let them sit in
a sink of water because you might think, oh, they're
really dirty, I'll put them in the sink. Well, what
we do is we use a peeler to peel the
to peel the stem and cut off the little tiny
bottom bit where it's been attached to the ground. And
(03:52):
then we would get a damp cloth and wipe the
cap with a damp cloth to get rid of any debris,
and then look underneath it for any extra like dusty stuff,
and then if it looks clean, I'd leave it at
that if you cut it and they have tiny tiny
holes in that can be maggots.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Quite often they're sold there's a couple cut in half,
so you can sort of inspect them even we buy
them like that.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, okay, so let's now think. So we've got the
porcini attached to its stem, we've wiped the top with
the cloth, and we've peeled the stem with a peeler,
and we've cut off the base.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Now what Well, now you have to work out what
you want to cook.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I'd probably go for a roasted porcini because I just
I think that it is just so exciting and so visual.
A great porcini could be the size of your hand,
or bigger than that, and you could just cut it
in half lengthways, in half or quarter if it's massive,
or even leave.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
It hole if you want to.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Hole's nice.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
You can either cut the bottom of the mushroom and
stick a sprig of time in or a sprig of garlic,
and then just put it in a pan, a saucepan
with some olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it
in the oven til I'd probably say a good at
least ten minuteserature or about two twenty DeGreasy for fifty
(05:14):
f something like that.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I say, hot, hottish, you know the f that's really impressive.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
I'm probably wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Let's cook for ten minutes in a hottish oven and
then let it sit for a couple of five minutes
or so. Maybe you put some tinfoil on it.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
It goes really Yeah, that sounds really nice. Then rest
a bit, and then.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You could have a fresh cannellini bean. So you can
have it on a brisqueta. You could have it with
some presiuto. It should be soft enough that in theory
you could eat it with a fork or it's not
hard to cut. And it's very aromatic and perfumed. It
just goes with everything. You can have it with fish,
it with meat, have it on his own, co it
(05:53):
for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
My dad used always Mate, they go out foraging them
before we got up and then come back and make
the scrambled egs with couch before school scrabbled eggs. Yeah wow,
but not every day, you know, this is like once
in a while. And I definitely it was like a
normal kid, and I didn't like mushrooms like regular kid.
And then suddenly I like to remember a family a
little bit gutted.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Oh no, there's like.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Another just share. It's really nice when they go into things.
I love porcini cooked with potatoes, you know, over potatoes,
when the juice goes in the potatoes, all the same
would be. You know, if I think of my favorite rosotto,
it definitely would be porcini. I think there is something
about a fresh porcini risotti which is really just.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Magic porcini and potatoes. Who've done it different ways the.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Way I like it best.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Here is cooked in this round tin, and I remember
making this with Roads so well, and you'd have just
very thin layer of potatoes, very thin layer of parsley
which would always go brown by the end.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And somehow that kind of added to it.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And then a big layer of porcini and another layer
of potatoes and a lad puccini and olive oil and
just put in the oven like that baked.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I'll be absolutely honest.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It doesn't look exquisite, but it tastes absolutely magic.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
I've made that dish.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I remember getting shown how to make it by Rose,
and already I make it differently.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
This is the great thing about having cooked with Rose
is that everyone thinks that she had the way in
the way they learned from her is the way, but
she always changed it.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I think for me, the timing of porcini with polenta,
this is one of my favorite's. The way it's the
reading is because I would separate the stem from the top,
and I think because I sometimes question cooking them whole,
because I think that the stem often tastes takes a
(07:46):
different timing for the from the top, and so you
might get the top which kind of melts and feels
really good in that stem somehow separated, feels like a
stem rather than to me part of the mushroom. And
so I I like to cut them separately, and then
I would fry them in olive oil quite a while,
(08:07):
and I'd do probably quite big pieces, you know, thick pieces.
But I think that then with the polenta, there's your
moment to choose the butter, which I just love, and
the parmesan. So I would never myself sprinkle cheese if
I was having a mushroom next to it, you know,
I just stir probably the cheese and butter into the
(08:28):
polenta and then have the mushrooms, you know, sort of
next to it. And yeah, for me, that is one
of the great dishes.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
But this is something about the smell. It's so alluring,
isn't it. They're so kind of perfumed.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, Porcini. How to find them, how to clean them,
how to cook them, how to eat them, And we'll
be back next.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Week with more.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Welcome to our new bonus series of Ruthie's Table four.
It's September. Feels like we're all sharpening our pencils and
coming back to school after a warm, beautiful summer, and
I'm here with Sean Owen and Joseph Travelli are executive
(00:22):
chefs at the River Cafe. Do you want to tell
us about the ingredients that are coming in? The ones
who were saying hello to the ones we're saying goodbye
to you.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's the stereotypical cook's favorite time of year. I think
pretty much.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yeah, we're going into the chef season now what we
were like autumn? I guess harvest and mushrooms are a
kind of the staple of September. I think they're so
amazing and they're right slap bang start in season now.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Definitely that when I came back from holiday is the
first and I went in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
It was the first thing. It's like, Oh, they're porcini.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So on this episode we're going to talk about porcinion.
Let's just start from the very first thing, which is
how to get one in the country. Would you tell
somebody to pick one.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
You're probably best finding your local mushroom.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
It's not easy to get them, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Funnily enough, yesterday I found myself walking past the vegetop
of an old supplier of ours, so you know, I
won't say hello, and obviously I'm like, it's this time
of year, you know, what about all these mushrooms used
to bring us? You know, because we're in London, we're
brilliantly placed because last year we had the amazing porcini
from Sweden a lot or from Scotland we get them,
or from Italy, you know, or they're supposedly at least
(01:32):
through Italy and you know also from the East. They're
all wonderful, but obviously the best are the local ones
that you get the fast. And he said that he
can't buy them so much anymore because the people that
used to go picking them are now older and he
has this hard work, you know, because everyonthing's it's expensive,
but actually because there's not much in it, you've got
(01:53):
to get up really early. You're competing with all these
people that are just going to pick porgini's because they
want it anyway, like you know, we buy a day off.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
But the old days of someone.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Arriving with a car full of twenty kilos of mushrooms,
he said, it doesn't happen anymore. And that's not because
the nature's.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Changed, it's just the lady used to go to Wimbledon,
common didn't she coming with the porcini? And then we
were always like, well, let's get her followed. We should
follow her so you can find that where she's gay
because we have a chef who and she wouldn't leave
the trail because any reputable mushroom picker is not going to.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Let anyone know.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Well, basically we're telling people all about portuini, but they
probably can't get them.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think you could get them where I grew up.
You should buy them, like you can buy them, you know,
it's not impossible.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Yeah, you can come and eat them with the River Cafe.
Yeah right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You're supposed to not pick any mushrooms unless you really
know what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, so let's talk about what we're cooking. But were
you cooked to know with the portuini?
Speaker 5 (02:49):
So I had them on the menu three times.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I had them thinny lives and raw on top of
the beef carpaco this season with olive on and lemon
and a bit of fresh parmesan shaved on top.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I had them slow cooked down to a.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
Real sludge, really strong, slow cooked down with pappadelli, fresh pappadelli,
and then I had them on with the grouse roasted
whole with the burrello brescata.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
So you could have a three course.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
But for the home cook somebody who might be listening
at home, what do I do when I get them home?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
How do I clean a.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
P I would say, if they've got a lot of
mud on them, dried mud or the ground, do you
want to resist the eyge to let them sit in
a sink of water because you might think, oh, they're
really dirty, I'll put them in the sink. Well, what
we do is we use a peeler to peel the
to peel the stem and cut off the little tiny
bottom bit where it's been attached to the ground. And
(03:52):
then we would get a damp cloth and wipe the
cap with a damp cloth to get rid of any debris,
and then look underneath it for any extra like dusty stuff,
and then if it looks clean, I'd leave it at
that if you cut it and they have tiny tiny
holes in that can be maggots.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Quite often they're sold there's a couple cut in half,
so you can sort of inspect them even we buy
them like that.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, okay, so let's now think. So we've got the
porcini attached to its stem, we've wiped the top with
the cloth, and we've peeled the stem with a peeler,
and we've cut off the base.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Now what Well, now you have to work out what
you want to cook.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I'd probably go for a roasted porcini because I just
I think that it is just so exciting and so visual.
A great porcini could be the size of your hand,
or bigger than that, and you could just cut it
in half lengthways, in half or quarter if it's massive,
or even leave.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
It hole if you want to.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Hole's nice.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
You can either cut the bottom of the mushroom and
stick a sprig of time in or a sprig of garlic,
and then just put it in a pan, a saucepan
with some olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it
in the oven til I'd probably say a good at
least ten minuteserature or about two twenty DeGreasy for fifty
(05:14):
f something like that.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I say, hot, hottish, you know the f that's really impressive.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
I'm probably wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Let's cook for ten minutes in a hottish oven and
then let it sit for a couple of five minutes
or so. Maybe you put some tinfoil on it.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
It goes really Yeah, that sounds really nice. Then rest
a bit, and then.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
You could have a fresh cannellini bean. So you can
have it on a brisqueta. You could have it with
some presiuto. It should be soft enough that in theory
you could eat it with a fork or it's not
hard to cut. And it's very aromatic and perfumed. It
just goes with everything. You can have it with fish,
it with meat, have it on his own, co it
(05:53):
for breakfast.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
My dad used always Mate, they go out foraging them
before we got up and then come back and make
the scrambled egs with couch before school scrabbled eggs. Yeah wow,
but not every day, you know, this is like once
in a while. And I definitely it was like a
normal kid, and I didn't like mushrooms like regular kid.
And then suddenly I like to remember a family a
little bit gutted.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Oh no, there's like.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Another just share. It's really nice when they go into things.
I love porcini cooked with potatoes, you know, over potatoes,
when the juice goes in the potatoes, all the same
would be. You know, if I think of my favorite rosotto,
it definitely would be porcini. I think there is something
about a fresh porcini risotti which is really just.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Magic porcini and potatoes. Who've done it different ways the.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Way I like it best.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Here is cooked in this round tin, and I remember
making this with Roads so well, and you'd have just
very thin layer of potatoes, very thin layer of parsley
which would always go brown by the end.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
And somehow that kind of added to it.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And then a big layer of porcini and another layer
of potatoes and a lad puccini and olive oil and
just put in the oven like that baked.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
I'll be absolutely honest.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
It doesn't look exquisite, but it tastes absolutely magic.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
I've made that dish.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I remember getting shown how to make it by Rose,
and already I make it differently.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
This is the great thing about having cooked with Rose
is that everyone thinks that she had the way in
the way they learned from her is the way, but
she always changed it.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I think for me, the timing of porcini with polenta,
this is one of my favorite's. The way it's the
reading is because I would separate the stem from the top,
and I think because I sometimes question cooking them whole,
because I think that the stem often tastes takes a
(07:46):
different timing for the from the top, and so you
might get the top which kind of melts and feels
really good in that stem somehow separated, feels like a
stem rather than to me part of the mushroom. And
so I I like to cut them separately, and then
I would fry them in olive oil quite a while,
(08:07):
and I'd do probably quite big pieces, you know, thick pieces.
But I think that then with the polenta, there's your
moment to choose the butter, which I just love, and
the parmesan. So I would never myself sprinkle cheese if
I was having a mushroom next to it, you know,
I just stir probably the cheese and butter into the
(08:28):
polenta and then have the mushrooms, you know, sort of
next to it. And yeah, for me, that is one
of the great dishes.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
But this is something about the smell. It's so alluring,
isn't it. They're so kind of perfumed.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, Porcini. How to find them, how to clean them,
how to cook them, how to eat them, And we'll
be back next.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Week with more.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Thank you for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership
with Montclair
Host
Ruth Rogers
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