Restaurants like famed Noma have based their cooking philosophy on foraging, with an app recently introduced by its proprietor, Rene Redzepi, to help demystify the concept that’s gaining more and more traction by the day.

Take a field trip with us to Inwood Hill Park, as we’re joined by Chef Kristopher Edelen, founder of Hot Pan NYC, an experiential events company focused on modern cuisine. On this trip, we’ll learn foraging techniques, plants to look for, and how to best cook them.

Overlooking the Hudson River, Inwood Hill Park is one of the best places for

foragers to search for wild foods in the Fall, Spring and Summer. It’s the city’s hilliest park, complete with a large, mature forest, meadows, thickets, and cultivated areas loaded with wild

plants. Don’t miss a fantastic walk of this vastly under appreciated park.

After our expedition, we’ll enjoy a small tasting of freshly pickled wild plants sauteed with olive oil, garlic, shallots, white wine, sea salt, and pepper.

Recipes will be sent out to everyone after the class.

What We’ll Forage For

Red, white, and pink mulberries

Daylily flower shoots (often used in hot-and-sour soups)

Burdock (an often commercially expensive detoxifying herb)

Mugwort/Motherwort (tonics)

Sassafras root (original source of root beer)

Black Birch (used to bake birch beer; anti-inflammatory properties)

Mushroom (Chicken of the Woods, Oyster, and Wine Cap varieties)





What to Bring

We advise against dressing up in your Sunday best, as we’re going to get down and dirty. Bags or containers are highly encouraged to gather the items we forage. A pair of hiking boots are encouraged.

About Kris









Kristopher Edelen (also known as Chef KPE) is reinventing the modern America dining experience. in February 2014, he launched HOTPANnyc a culinary concept dedicated to native post-modern cuisine. He develops traditional and non-traditional delicacies that are multi-sensory, using sustainable ingredients. He takes advantage of technical innovations and scientific disciplines while using sustainable ingredients to create his own culinary narrative. His goal is to help our world rebuild itself by using methods from our prehistoric diets, including foraging, fresh produce , farming, fishing , hunting and entomophagy (the study of eating insects). Edelen promotes local and seasonal produce as a basis for new dishes and finds inspiration by looking at the past, present, and future. Edelen studied at the Culinary Institute of America and has been featured on the Food Network (Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen), First We Feast and FYI.





You can follow him on Instagram at @chefkpe