Executive chef and Ohms Collective founder Omar Dasco-Uribe is bringing food, fermentation, fungi, and plant medicine together at the inaugural Ojai Mushroom Summit October 11-18, highlighting the untapped potential of koji, wild mushrooms, and the culinary applications of mycology to bring Michelin-level cuisine to everyday people.
Omar Dasco-Uribe of the Ojai Mushroom Summit
The future of the mushroom industry may have as much to do with what happens in the kitchen as what happens in the lab.
For Omar Dasco-Uribe, an executive chef and community builder who has spent nearly three decades living in Ojai, California, mushrooms represent an opportunity to rethink our relationship with food and the natural world at large. He envisions a future where Michelin Star-level cuisine is accessible to everyday people through the magic of fermentation and applied mycology, and where tradition meets innovation in a community-centered context.
On a recent episode of the Mycopreneur Podcast, Omar joined me to discuss the inaugural Ojai Mushroom Summit, an ambitious weeklong gathering bringing together mushroom enthusiasts, chefs, cultivators, researchers, entertainers, and entrepreneurs for a series of hands-on workshops, educational seminars, and cultural programming.
But beyond the summit itself, our conversation points toward a larger opportunity for the mushroom industry: expanding exotic fungi's potential beyond supplements and wellness products into the foods people eat every day.
Koji: The Fungi Behind Some of the World's Most Important Fermented Foods
“Koji has been blowing my mind lately,” says Dasco-Uribe as we tuck into a dialogue about the 2,000 year old Japanese fermentation method that leverages the Aspergillus oryzae fungus to achieve complex and dynamic flavor profiles in various foods it’s introduced to.
Although koji remains relatively unfamiliar to many Westerners, it has long played a central role in Japanese food production.
Koji is produced by cultivating the Aspergillus oryzae on a substrate such as steamed rice. During this process, the fungus produces enzymes that break down proteins and carbohydrates, helping transform ordinary ingredients into complex, flavorful foods.
For example, traditional methods for dry-aging a steak can require weeks or months to develop the particular textures and flavors the chef is after. Koji offers an alternative approach, using enzymes to condense that flavor transformation into a 48-hour timeline. Dasco-Uribe also described experimenting with shio koji to cure pork chops, incorporating morels he had foraged himself. After preparing a koji-based paste and allowing the pork to cure in the refrigerator for approximately two to three days, he seared the chops and served them with a sauce made from the pan drippings, white wine, and butter.
Koji carrot carpaccio by Wade Fox
A growing number of people in the mushroom culinary scene have been leaning into koji to introduce and amplify exquisite flavor profiles such as deep umami and natural sweetness in the foods they add the fungus too. Chef Wade Fox has been one of the pioneering gastronomical wizards embracing the art of koji in the kitchen while traveling around the country educating people on the endless possibilities that it brings to the table. Fox will be teaching a hands on koji workshop as part of the Ojai Mushroom Summit on Tuesday, October 13th. The experience is designed as a four-hour, hands-on exploration of fermentation and flavor development.
As Dasco-Uribe explained, koji is fundamental to the production of familiar fermented staples, including miso and soy sauce. It can also be used to make shio koji, a fermented rice-based seasoning that has attracted attention among chefs for its ability to tenderize ingredients and develop flavor.
“It's pre-digesting the enzymes and breaking them down so that everything becomes more bioavailable,” Dasco-Uribe explained, describing how koji transforms meat through enzymatic activity.
The Ojai Mushroom Summit will feature a Master Chef Koji Class on Tuesday, October 13th to give attendees a hands on experience into how the magic of this ancient technique can be harnessed to level up their culinary prowess.
His enthusiasm reflects a broader principle of culinary mycology: fungi aren't simply ingredients to be added to a dish. They can also act as transformative agents, changing the flavor, texture, and culinary potential of other ingredients.
Connecting Culinary Mycology With the Mushroom Industry
Dasco-Uribe sees koji as a potential bridge between the fine dining world and the broader mushroom community.
During our interview, he suggested that the techniques used in fermentation could inspire new applications for mushroom-based foods and products such as Koji fermented hot sauce with Lion’s Mane extract. He also raised the possibility of exploring koji alongside mushroom tinctures and honey-based preparations, although such applications would require further experimentation to establish their effectiveness and safety.
His perspective highlights an important distinction in how fungi are understood commercially. Much of the modern mushroom market focuses on capsules, powders, tinctures, and functional beverages. Culinary applications offer another route to reaching consumers: through familiar foods, memorable flavors, and experiences that don't require an introduction to the supplement industry.
Orange katsuobushi by Wade Fox
Dasco-Uribe previously cultivated koji and sold it to local restaurants, where chefs used it to produce miso. He now hopes to expand awareness of fermentation techniques among chefs in his region.
The opportunity extends beyond koji itself. Many culinary mushrooms possess distinctive flavor profiles that remain underutilized in mainstream food culture.
Another example of a recent surprising mushroom culinary fusion discussed during our interview was the Candy Cap (Lactarius rubidus) mushroom ice cream I had at the Western New York Fungi Fest in August of 2026, which harbors distinctively sweet, maple-like notes that also work well in sweet breads and coffee drinks.
Native North American truffles and truffles sourced internationally are another increasingly in vogue fungal culinary application that innovators like William Padilla-Brown of Mycosymbiotics have been experimenting with by infusing them into foods such as his signature Mr. Trüff’s Burger pop up experiences.
These examples illustrate how chefs can introduce consumers to mushrooms through unexpected applications rather than relying exclusively on conventional mushroom dishes.
Making Mushrooms Accessible Through Everyday Cooking
For Dasco-Uribe, culinary innovation doesn't necessarily mean elaborate techniques or expensive ingredients.
One of his favorite straightforward preparations involves maitake mushrooms, which can be pulled apart by hand and sautéed until their moisture cooks off. Adding onions, shallots, garlic, seasonings, and caramelized vegetables creates the foundation for a simple stir-fry served over rice.
Dasco-Uribe sees a need for better mushroom education and more accessible recipes, including opportunities to introduce mushrooms into institutional food settings such as schools and hospitals.
Rather than positioning mushrooms exclusively as specialized wellness products, this approach makes them part of a broader conversation about food culture, culinary diversity, and the ingredients available to home cooks.
Building a Mushroom Community in Ojai
These ideas will feature prominently at the inaugural Ojai Mushroom Summit, scheduled for October 11–18, 2026, in Ojai, California.
Organized by Dasco-Uribe through Ohms Collective, the gathering combines culinary education with mushroom cultivation, natural building, cactus education, live music, comedy, and community programming.
Other sessions include practical mushroom cultivation using flow hoods and discussions about combining mycelium with cob and other natural building materials, particularly relevant to communities rebuilding after wildfires.
For Dasco-Uribe, the summit is also an opportunity to strengthen relationships among people working across different parts of the mushroom ecosystem. His interest in mushrooms and cacti has increasingly become less about their individual properties and more about the practices and relationships they inspire.
“It's more of the life that I'm wanting to live,” he explained, describing how cultivating plants and fungi has helped him build a more intentional relationship with nature.
In an industry seeking new ways to introduce fungi to the public, the future of mushrooms won't necessarily be shaped exclusively by laboratories and product launches but will more likely emerge organically from kitchens, gardens, fermentation projects, and the communities that bring people together around food.
And sometimes, the next big opportunity begins with nothing more complicated than a handful of mushrooms, a little rice, and a few days of letting fungi do what they do best.
Listen to the full Mycopreneur Podcast episode with Omar Dasco-Uriber here:
