Who says steaks must be meat? Chef and mushroom evangelist takes on Texas barbecue crowd

When gearing up for cult-favorite Central Texas barbecue festival, Hot Luck Fest, Wicked Kitchen’s chef Derek Sarno gets ready like any skilled pitmaster — he sharpens his knives and assembles ingredients to complement the main course.

But there is a notable difference in his featured dish.

Instead of grabbing a slab of beef, pork or chicken for his grill like most pitmasters, Sarno reaches for a mixture of top-shelf mushrooms to create his flavorful, umami-rich grilled steaks.

For the second year and counting at Hot Luck Fest in Austin, Texas, Wicked Kitchen co-founders Derek Sarno and Chad Sarno have served up lion’s mane mushroom “steak,” black pearl oyster mushroom “poke,” portabella shawarma tacos and barbecue oyster mushroom “burnt ends” to 2,500 hungry barbecue enthusiasts the last weekend in May.

Interestingly, Wicked Kitchen’s plant-based offerings held their own among meat-centric Texas barbecue masters at a festival founded in part by legend and James Beard Award-winning chef Aaron Franklin. This year Wicked Kitchen, in partnership this year with The Mushroom Council, also presented the “Shroom House” — a mushroom-themed tasting zone with the ambiance of a Texas steakhouse, offering plant-based mushroom samples.

Related news: Mushroom Council targets Texas BBQ music festival with ‘Shroom House’

Serving up savory mushroom steaks alongside meat-based classics is par for the course for Derek Sarno, who’s shared his plant-based culinary wizardry and ethos throughout his career, first at Whole Foods Market, Tesco and now Wicked Kitchen.

Based in London, Sarno met with The Packer to talk mushrooms, plant-based foods and why you shouldn’t tell hungry eaters something’s vegan — just tell them that it’s delicious.

Edited for length and clarity.

The Packer: I was so excited to see that you and your team at Wicked Kitchen brought whole mushrooms, like lion’s mane, to grill at Hot Luck Fest. What made you decide to do this?

Sarno: What I've noticed since even before I was at Whole Foods from 2009 — before that I lived in a monastery and have been cooking plant-based for the last 15 years — what I noticed is all these plant-based meats are all fake meats. There's nothing wrong with them, but people keep finding excuses not to eat them and to continue eating animals.

For me personally, if I didn't want to eat plant-based burgers or whatnot, how do we incorporate eating healthy whole foods? Mushrooms are the solution. It’s super natural to prepare because they're super meaty.

[I went vegan seven years ago, and] mushrooms are the base for what I've cooked with ever since. The look, texture, taste, feel and the cooking process is great. I have continually practiced [the preparation] to the point where it's so convincing.

I really care about cooking; I'm not just throwing something in a microwave. I want to actually cook something as a chef. Add to this, a mushroom can be grown in matter of a couple of months rather than animal production that takes several years and resources. I don't find any downsides about mushrooms as a meat alternative.

I love that! Do you think the barbecue fans at this year’s Hot Luck Fest in Austin agreed? What was the reaction?

People loved it, and there was no word of vegan anywhere. We didn't want to scream, “We’re the vegan guys over here!” We were just like, “This is the Shroom House. Mushrooms are on the menu.”

Everybody was just amazed, like, “Wow, I never knew you could do that with mushrooms. I never knew that,” and “If you could cook for me all the time, I'd be eating this all the time.” So that's always good.

I feel like if you make it delicious — if it’s fresh and flavorful — it’s usually an easy sell, no matter who you’re talking to.

Yes, I want to show and share with everybody so they can try it. That's the mission, you know?

How do you think the produce industry can encourage shoppers to toss one more veggie or some mushrooms into their cart?

What I noticed is the lack educational support. Half the people look at lion's mane mushrooms and don’t know what they can do with it.

And it'd be awesome if we actually grew more. My whole mission is to create more supply and demand. I love that at Wicked Kitchen we partner with The Mushroom Council and support mushroom growers of all kinds, not just the big button-mushrooms, but all of them.

I would love to have more growers come to the scene, just like the craft brewery movement. When you look at Anheuser Busch and all the big beer companies, they were taken down by multitudes of small craft beers. It wasn’t just one single company; I think that's how it's going to have to be.

Do you see that happening now?

I’m trying to put the foundation in place. The thing about mushrooms is that they're not seasonal. They can grow anytime, anywhere. They can grow year-round, which is fantastic.

Obviously, I want more people to eat more plant-based no matter what brand it is. Wicked Kitchen happens to be run by chefs, and I don't know a lot of companies that have chefs behind them. Everyone’s at a board table trying to decide what's best to do, but I kind of like the chef approach.

Absolutely. I love that the innovation you brought to Hot Luck Fest was culinary, not tech. You and your team made mushroom steaks sexy to the Texas meat crowd.

I mean, if you're going to be a meat eater and you want to have an alternative, mushrooms are the best alternative, you know?

It's really a mind over matter thing. If you don't put the word vegan on your booth at Hot Luck Fest, nobody is going to avoid it. It's just about delicious food, which is all Wicked Kitchen is about — just making delicious food. It just happens to have no animals, period.