From Chef Nick Reisini, of Honest Plate:

The Books That Started It All

I own and recommend Northeast Foraging. It’s a guide that covers how to identify plants, how and when to gather, how to eat them, and how to preserve them for future harvests. 

Once you learn about all this stuff, you want to go into the woods and find it yourself. Would I recommend people do this? Yeah, definitely. Because you learn by doing.

How It Started for Me

I think one of the first things I discovered when I was a kid that really got me excited was when we lived in Connecticut in a town called Redding. We lived right on the edge of a wildlife preserve - 30, 40, 50 acres behind my house with just untouched nature. We had natural blueberry bushes, blackberry bushes in our backyard that we didn't plant. I just saw them, thought "oh, it looks like a blackberry" and ate it. That's how you learn.

What's Growing Here Now

One surprise you might not know about: fiddlehead ferns. You can find them at Citarella, but they also grow wild here in the Hamptons this time of year. They have a very earthy, grassy flavor — kind of like a green bean or asparagus, but with more of a snap. They only show up once a year, and they’ll be gone in a couple of weeks.

We’re also at the tail end of ramp season, which is always a big deal out here. They only pop up for a very short amount of time.

Tastes Like Chicken

One of the coolest mushrooms out there is Chicken of the Woods.

They get big, look like pieces of coral — super bright, super colorful. And they actually taste like chicken. It blows people away. You can be walking through the woods after a good rain and find them.

You don’t want to wash them too much because they’re like a giant sponge. We just use a brush to get the dirt off and clip the part that was attached to the tree. They’re so good — and you can cook them all different kinds of ways.

Contacts

🌐 Northeast Foraging

🌐 Honest Plate



About 

Chef Nick Reisini discovered his culinary calling at an early age and worked his way from deli worker to prep cook to head chef at acclaimed Hamptons restaurants such as Tutto il Giorno and Dopo La Spiaggia.

In 2020, he founded Honest Plate, a café and meal delivery service serving the entire East End. Based in Hampton Bays,

Chef Nick combines his restaurant expertise with a commitment to zero-waste practices, creating clean, locally-sourced cuisine for individual clients and corporate catering.

Lead-in Image

Image from Northeast Foraging by Lea Meredith, Timber Press