Better look this one up in the mycology book … Photo: iStockphoto

This will make people think twice before blindly eating foraged foods: A restaurant in Canberra, Australia’s capital*, is closed after two customers died because their meal contained deadly mushrooms. The Sydney Morning Herald says chef Liu Jun accidentally used death cap mushrooms in a private New Year’s Eve meal he put together for some customers, who in turn died of liver failure pretty much instantly. (Think that’s more or less painful than death by cat stew?)

Authorities think Liu picked the mushrooms himself, and mistook them for a variety of mushroom that wouldn’t make his customers’ livers stop working. One friend of the chef summed up the mistake thusly: “Liu Jun, being a chef, he’s super into fresh food, and that’s part of the problem here … You really just don’t expect that you make one mistake while eating something like that and be dead, and dead within 48 hours in the most horrible way.” No, you certainly don’t expect that.

*This posted has been corrected to show that the restaurant was in Canberra, not Sydney.

Deadly mushroom meal was made in a restaurant kitchen [Sydney Morning Herald]

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