Walking through the woods with professional forager Lori McCarthy, scanning the forest floor for chanterelle mushrooms, berries and other edibles, one can’t but can help but think she’s really figured life out.

Lori is part of a new generation of professional food foragers, the people who supply elite field-to-table restaurant with the ingredients that fuel their creativity and wow diners. Behind the innnovative chefs like René Redzepi of Coppenhagen’s Noma or Mads Refslund of New York’s Acme, there are master foragers like McCarthy who spend their days out in nature collecting secret ingredients.

Based in St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador, Lori provides wild edibles for the stars in the thriving local food scene, including Todd Perrin of the Mallard Cottage and Jeremy Charles of Raymonds and the Merchant Tavern (Canada’s best chef, who we profiled last week). She also takes visitors out for culinary adventures and to teach them how to forage for themselves.

When our East London neighbour John Quilter, aka YouTube’s Food Busker, went to Newfoundland and Labrador recently, some of the Huck team went along to capture it on film (see above).  We joined Lori on a day of foraging topped off with a cookout on the beach. John was so impressed, he had to ask the question: How do you become a professional forager?

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