A Day in the Life

The Fun in Fungus

Story by Isabela C. Varela

You may not have heard of it, but Mo-Na Food is a veritable Edmonton culinary institution, and business is mushrooming.

Michael Avenati has a vivid memory of a trip he took with family to Italy, decades ago. They were in Cuneo, in the Piedmont region of Italy, and then-15-year-old Avenati was in the countryside on the hunt for something exotic and elusive – and he remembers the thrill of the chase.

The object of his pursuit was mushrooms. More specifically, the highly prized porcini mushroom, also known by the regal name of King Bolete.

“We didn’t find any mushrooms that day, but I remember going back to the house with my aunts and cousins and eating a great Italian meal that included dried and preserved mushrooms,” says Avenati, now 45. “Later, in my 30s, I was a member of the Edmonton Mycological Society, and they’d organize forays around Alberta looking for wild mushrooms.”

Whip-thin and boyish, Avenati has the high energy necessary for running a small business. From amateur teen mushroom hunter to mushroom hobbyist in his 30s, it makes sense that Avenati, along with partner Rachel Viszmeg, is now the proud co-owner of Mo-Na Food. The Edmonton-based business distributes a wide selection of fresh, frozen and dried wild and domestic mushrooms to restaurants and food manufacturers.

The Red Ox Inn, Unheardof, Sorrentino’s – if you’ve dined at any of Edmonton’s most celebrated restaurants, chances are you have enjoyed Mo-Na’s mushrooms. The company has been around since the mid-1980s, established by Rita and Otto Holzbauer. They built relationships with restaurants and food manufacturers that continued through a second set of owners and are now flourishing under Avenati and Viszmeg, who bought the business two years ago. And it helps that the two are committed foodies.

“When Mike and Rachel purchased Mo-Na Food, it took little time for me to discover they were in it because they liked it, because they had a passion for mushrooms and the food business,” says Lynn Heard, owner of Edmonton’s Unheardof Restaurant. “They have the attitude people need when they’re in small business, meaning that they go the extra mile.”

Unheardof gets a variety of product from Mo-Na Food, including wild mushrooms, dried mushrooms and more common cultivated mushrooms, such as shiitake and crimini. Heard also turns to Mo-Na for specialty produce, such as wild berries, fiddleheads, sea asparagus and Alberta wild rice.

Many of Mo-Na’s mushrooms come from Prairie Mushrooms, a family-owned business with a state-of-the art growing facility in Sherwood Park. It supplies fresh, cultivated mushrooms such as portabella and crimini to the company. And Mo-Na also imports mushrooms.

Freshness, quality and diversity are key to Mo-Na Food’s success. Because it supplies restaurants and food manufacturers – there’s no retail side – it has to carry the best. “It increased my interest in buying this business when I saw it was specialty wholesale. It motivates me when I’m working with culinary experts,” he explains. And it helps that Rachel has a long history in virtually all aspects of food service. “We’re inspired by the close contact with the restaurant industry and the food processing and manufacturing industry. The processors are as passionate as the chefs.”

Frank Olson, chef and owner of the Red Ox Inn, is impressed with Mo-Na Food’s high standards. “Their quality control is great. They make sure the product they bring in is in good shape, or else they don’t bother passing it on to the customer.”

For the consumer, the best opportunity to sample a range of Mo-Na Food’s farmed and wild mushrooms comes in September, with Sorrentino’s Annual Mushroom Harvest. That month every one of Sorrentino’s seven Alberta locations features a different signature menu showcasing mushrooms.

In 2007, the Mushroom Harvest tempted palates in Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park and Calgary with more than 100 delectable fungi creations. And most of those dishes, such as baked macaroni with wild mushrooms and truffle-infused sea scallops with chanterelle mushrooms, were made with Mo-Na mushrooms.

“We supplied most of their mushrooms, including truffles from Italy, for their wine and truffle night. To be able to meet all their needs in 2007 was pretty gratifying,” says Avenati.

And what was his favourite dish among the bounty of tasty concoctions at last year’s Mushroom Harvest? “It was a mushroom torte, just a nice, simple puff pastry with a wild mushroom filling. It was stylish in its preparation.”

Avenati hopes to be a big part of Sorrentino’s Mushroom Harvest this coming fall, but in the meantime, he and Viszmeg have plenty to keep them busy. Renovations at the current location, which dates back to the days of Rita and Otto Holzbauer, will allow them to have a separate area for sorting and packaging. “This will help us look at new packaging concepts, right now for the restaurants and the food service industry, but with the possibility of a retail-type product line in the future.”

The busy mushroom season begins as early as May, once the wild mushroom harvest gets going, and it lasts into late summer, when mushroom production, tourism and increased restaurant activity collide. In late fall and early winter, there’s another peak of wild product sourced in British Columbia. Mo-Na counts on farmed mushrooms year-round, but wild mushrooms are unpredictable.

“That’s what’s so mysterious about the wild mushroom,” says Avenati. “Mushrooms have grown to be kind of a mystical product for me. Wild mushrooms have an allure because they can be so elusive. You never know when or even if you’ll find them.”

But as long as Mo-Na Food is supplying regional restaurants, Albertans can count on the province’s best mushrooms being just a dinner reservation away.  

Must eat mushrooms

Whether you prefer a dark and meaty portabella mushroom or a white button mushroom, you’ll be happy to know these edible fungi pack some nutritional punch. Mushrooms add:

•Vitamins, such as riboflavin, niacin, folate, thiamin and vitamin B6

•Minerals, including potassium, copper, phosphorus and selenium

•Depth of flavour to your cooking, they are also very low in cholesterol and carbohydrates, so indulge!

•Virtually no calories, fat or sodium

•A feeling of satiety (or fullness) for dieters

Source: www.mushrooms.ca