Fungal cuisine · Fungidencias at the table

Chefs Who Have Cooked with Simbiosis

Across more than a decade of forays, dinners and events, we have carried Mexico’s seasonal wild mushrooms into the hands of cooks who share the same respect for the land. Every dish born of that alliance is a fungidencia: the fortunate encounter between forest and fire.

They cook alongside us

Before he was a collaborator, David was a friend. With him we have built mycotourism, fungal experiences, fungal cooking and more than one unforgettable fungidencia. Born in Rostock, Germany, and based in Mexico for more than two decades, David brings 35 years of culinary craft and several more as a university professor of haute cuisine. His cooking school in San Miguel de Allende has been recognized among the best rated in Mexico. Together we have turned the forest harvest into a table, and the table into a living classroom on the fungal kingdom.

sanmigueldeallendecookingclasses.com · Reviews on Tripadvisor · Portrait at Casa Armida

Next experience · July 2026

Mushrooms and cooking in the forest

With chef David Jahnke and the Simbiosis team

Every Sunday in July — 5, 12, 19 and 26 — we climb into the Sierra de Santa Rosa, to Rancho Peralillo (Guanajuato), for a full day in the forest. As pioneers of mycotourism in Guanajuato since 2014, we open the mountain to anyone who wishes to learn to look at the Fungal Kingdom up close.

The experience includes:

• An introductory, immersive class on the Fungal Kingdom, by Arif Towns Alonso
• Hiking and mushroom foraging
• Species identification and interpretation
• A printed field guide
• Mushroom cooking deep in the forest, by chef David Jahnke
• A mushroom illustration class across several techniques
• Traveler’s insurance
• And other surprise activities

At the center of it all, the forest cooking of David Jahnke — 35 years of craft, culinary education and mycogastronomy — who transforms what we gather that same morning into an unforgettable meal, served beneath the trees.

Reserve your place See all experiences

Limited capacity each Sunday. Dates and activities may shift with the conditions of the forest and the rainy season.

David Castillo Aceves was born in the Pueblo Mágico of Mineral del Chico, where as a child he gathered mushrooms with his grandmother in the forest of El Chico National Park. He trained in Italy — with a master’s in grilling and smoking — and on his return transformed the restaurant his father founded in the nineties into La Trucha Grilla, today a kitchen with more than fifty trout preparations and a manifesto of the food heritage of Hidalgo. His bond with the mountain, the mushrooms and the harvest makes him an ideal accomplice of Simbiosis mycotourism in the region.

@latruchagrilla · latruchagrilla.com · La Trucha Grilla on Facebook

San Miguel de Allende

Our home and our kitchen

Jesús Arellano Beltrán and Nelcy lead Agavia, a contemporary Mexican restaurant with a menu suited to celiac, vegan and vegetarian diners. They work exclusively with 100% Mexican ingredients and producers from San Miguel, a philosophy of proximity that connects naturally with the seasonal wild mushroom.

Agavia on Facebook

At the helm of Macaria, Luis Enrique Castro is a regular Simbiosis collaborator and appears in several of our publications cooking with seasonal wild mushrooms. His kitchen converses with the local ingredient that defines our foraging experiences.

A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Mexico, Jorge Avendaño worked in Mexico City and Montreal before a season at Noma, in Copenhagen. Back in San Miguel he founded Bastardo and Salvajes Brasserie, and today he carries that same philosophy to Cabra de Monte, a country kitchen where what reaches the table is bound to what grows that very morning — a natural ally of the foraging tours.

Bastardo · Salvajes Brasserie

Founder of The Restaurant (Sollano 16), one of the spaces that has most shaped the culinary profile of San Miguel since 2008. Masterton built his kitchen on local supply — farmers, ranchers and artisans of the region — and a menu that changes with the seasons. That seasonal sensibility is what draws him to the wild mushroom.

@therestaurantsma · therestaurantsanmiguel.com

Recognized as the ramen master of San Miguel, Satoru Takeda brings Japanese and Korean cooking to his restaurants Chikatana and Kokumi. His command of broth, umami and Japanese technique offers an entirely different gaze upon the seasonal wild mushroom.

Chikatana / Kokumi on Facebook

Part of a lineage of Guanajuato cooks — son of the renowned chef Bricio Domínguez — Alonso Domínguez opened his own restaurant, Nextia, at a young age, betting on the produce of the land and on technique in service of the ingredient. His contemporary cooking finds in the wild mushroom a canvas of textures.

Nextia on Gastronomía.com

At the helm of Atrio, the rooftop looking onto the Parroquia (Cuna de Allende 3), Arturo Sandoval signs a precise international kitchen with a changing menu — where the steak with morels is never absent. His constant search for ingredients of character makes him kin to the seasonal wild mushroom.

@atriosma

Chef Joan Casas Rodeja arrived more than two decades ago to build one of the great Spanish kitchens of Mexico: El Asador Catalán, a benchmark for paellas and roasts in San Miguel. His son, Jordi Casas, learned to cook there as a child and went on to become National Paella Champion. Father and son embody the cuisine of fire and produce that honors every ingredient, the seasonal mushroom included.

elasadorcatalan.com · Asador Catalán on Facebook

Swiss-Italian by origin, Marco Massarotti leads Casa Nostra (Terraplén 8), an Italian and European restaurant highly regarded in San Miguel de Allende. With house-made pasta, wood-fired meats and a celebrated cellar, Marco bets on the local and organic ingredient — and on our mushrooms.

casanostrasanmiguelallende.com

Chef J.J. brought Moroccan cooking to San Miguel with Mesa Marrakesh (Refugio Norte 1), a small, warm room where the bastilla, the kebabs and the spices of North Africa shine. His palate for spice and slow braise finds in the mushroom an ingredient of depth.

Mesa Marrakesh on Wanderlog

Erick Medina Guisa, chef at Pork Belly, combines his experience in European kitchens with his Mexican heritage in a proposal centered on smoke, local produce and ingredients from his own garden. His cuisine of fire and smoke finds in the wild mushroom an ingredient of character.

@porkbelly_sma · porkbellysma.com

A Holistic Chef and Health Coach, Alicia Rutherford founded Blend Boutique, specialized in functional plant-based drinks: adaptogens, elixirs, immunity shots and mushrooms. Her focus on functional nutrition makes her one of the collaborators closest to the essence of Simbiosis. Blend operates at Ancha de San Antonio 123, the same building that houses Simbiosis inside Mercado Sano.

blendsma.com

Kenten Marin and Sid Ranck, at the helm of Chango’s Kitchen, are Simbiosis collaborators in cooking with seasonal wild mushrooms. Their work has included themed dinners with wine pairings, such as their collaboration with Tres Raíces Winery.

@_changoskitchen · Chango’s Kitchen on Facebook

Puerto Vallarta

Mediterranean cooking facing the Pacific

A chef-owner of German origin, Bernhard Güth opened Trío in downtown Puerto Vallarta (Guerrero 264) in 1997 and has sustained, for more than twenty-five years, one of the most beloved Mediterranean kitchens with a Mexican accent in the city — also behind Vitea, alongside Ulf Henriksson. A friend and accomplice at the stove, with him we have cooked the seasonal wild mushroom far from its forest, on the shore of the Pacific.

triopv.com

Oaxaca

The south that makes us kin

An ambassador of Oaxacan gastronomy and one of the most recognized figures in Mexican cooking, Alejandro Ruiz has carried the flavors of his land onto the national and international stage. His deep knowledge of the wild, seasonal ingredient makes him kin to the philosophy of Simbiosis.

@aruizchefmx

An Oaxacan chef from Huajuapan de León, Israel Loyola Espinoza was a key part of the team that positioned Jacinto 1930 in San Miguel as one of the finest restaurants in the country. He has since returned to Oaxaca to lead a vegan kitchen deeply rooted in the traditions of his state, with endemic ingredients such as avocado leaf, native corn and quelites.

Profile in Aderezo

Paths that cross ours

Cooks whose road has met our own

Founder of Áperi, the restaurant many point to as the trigger of the gastronomic San Miguel of today, Matteo Salas marked an era with his cuisine of local produce and high European technique. He now lives in Switzerland, where he trains new generations of cooks, yet his mark on the San Miguel table — and on our history with the seasonal ingredient — remains.

aperi.mx

Executive chef of Bixa (Irapuato), Berenice Sainz Góngora cooks an honest proposal of three generations, with Yucatecan roots — achiote, recado negro — and Guanajuato produce. Each year she brings Simbiosis wild mushrooms into her kitchen, and we have watched her shine at events such as Millesime San Miguel de Allende, where she presented dishes with salicornia and mushrooms.

bixa.mx · @bixacocina

Our mushrooms in the great kitchens of Mexico

Seasonal supply

Alcalde, from Guadalajara chef Francisco "Paco" Ruano, is the great contemporary kitchen of Guadalajara: one Michelin star (Michelin Guide Mexico 2026) and No. 15 on Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Trained at Mugaritz, El Celler de Can Roca and Noma, Ruano reinterprets the seasonal larder of Jalisco — and Simbiosis supplies his kitchen directly with seasonal wild mushrooms. (Av. México 2903, Vallarta Norte.)

Pujol is one of the two restaurants in Mexico holding two Michelin stars and a global reference for contemporary Mexican cuisine. Simbiosis has supplied seasonal wild mushrooms to its kitchen. (Tennyson 133, Polanco.)

Quintonil — led by Jorge Vallejo and Alejandra Flores — shares with Pujol the summit of the Michelin Guide in Mexico with two stars. Simbiosis has supplied seasonal wild mushrooms to its kitchen. (Av. Isaac Newton 55, Polanco.)

At Rosetta, Elena Reygadas — one Michelin star and named World’s Best Female Chef 2023 by The World’s 50 Best — defends Mexican biodiversity through bread and produce. Simbiosis has supplied seasonal wild mushrooms to her kitchen. (Colima 166, Roma Norte.)

Eduardo “Lalo” García, at the helm of Máximo, earned one Michelin star and is a cook of produce and season — himself a mushroom forager. On occasion, Simbiosis has supplied him with seasonal mushrooms. (Álvaro Obregón 65 Bis, Roma Norte.)

On film

Fungal cooking before the camera

And the table keeps growing

Are you a chef who wants to cook with us?

If you would like to take part in our foraging and cooking tours, or in a special dinner with seasonal wild mushrooms, write to us. The table always has one more place.

Keep exploring Simbiosis

The Shrooms Bar & Deli · Experiences and mycotourism · Simbiosis in the media · About Simbiosis · Our nanacateras · Recipe books · Shop