Out of the Wild with an Off the Grid Gourmand

From the Boston Globe.

"At an underground foraged dinner here, the focus is as much on the people as it is on the food. There are the stories the dinner guests tell you — strangers whom you gradually get to know over the span of eight courses and shared bottles of wine. And then there are the poetic tales of the food itself. Discussions might enlighten diners about which tree the wild bay leaves in the butter crostini come from; that the Meyer lemons were picked from an East Bay garden; how to avoid leaky sewer pipes when looking for wild watercress; and where to hunt for the abundant nasturtium flowers in Golden Gate Park.

Wild Kitchen dinners are the creation of Iso Rabins, a food enthusiast turned forager who is also the founder of San Francisco’s underground farm markets, which began with several vendors and have grown to about 60. Rabins discovered foraging when he first moved here from the East Coast 3 1/2 years ago. He quickly realized that bounty was everywhere. It was just a matter of picking it. He began hosting the foraged dinners last year and now holds them three times a month, cooking and serving with the help of friends and local chefs. For $80 to $100, you get a multicourse meal without alcohol (guests are encouraged to bring their own wine).

He started by knocking on the back doors of restaurants and calling chefs, peddling his foraged harvest out of the back of his car. The response was mostly positive, he says, and only one restaurant turned him down. “Did you steal these?’’ he recalls them asking. “I’d eaten wild food before but I’d never made the connection that someone had actually gone and gotten it,’’ he explains to the 65 guests at this dinner, held in a large converted warehouse belonging to a local personality known as Chicken John.

Dinners are a funny mix of casual and chic. Plates are mismatched, dish towels serve as napkins, jam jars are provided for wine. Diners, too, are an eclectic bunch. A winemaking couple from Oakland across the table is out for a birthday dinner; the German-Danish couple next to me is marking their fourth wedding anniversary.

Every few courses, Rabins emerges from the kitchen and explains the origins of the courses about to be served. Porcini mushrooms in the bisque are from Mendocino and Eureka; fried smelts from Washington state; morels in the polenta from Mount Shasta; and nettles from the coast in nearby Bolinas. Several of the eight courses are classic California-Mediterranean; others, like homemade ricotta with gleaned fruits, served with barbecued oysters, are intriguing but wacky.

In addition to eloquent, amusing tales about the food, Rabins doles out foraging etiquette. “Whenever you forage anything, leave a third of what’s there," he tells the guests.

On this night, about a quarter of the featured foods are foraged, Rabins says. Because foraging can yield such different finds depending on season, week, or even day, the menu is always subject to change. The planned halibut was replaced by cod, then dusted in foraged wild fennel and served with a rich Provencal sauce.

The cohost of the evening, Jordan Grosser, a former restaurant chef turned independent cheesemaker, remains in the kitchen throughout the meal. In an effort to make dinners accessible, a limited number of tickets are offered at a discounted price. Guests are also encouraged to barter for a place at the table.

In spite of success and growing numbers of diners with a penchant for foraged food, Rabins hopes to keep the dinners simple and in sync with the original philosophy. “I love that people like to experience meals in a different way,’’ he says. “It’s surprising and amazing."