EDIBLE: Suzette Gresham heads Big Sur Foragers Fest.

There are certain things that recommend Suzette Gresham to occupy the celebrity chef position that anchors the annual Big Sur Foragers Fest at Ventana Inn and Spa (among other venues).

Her modern Italian spot Acquerello in the heart of San Francisco earned a nomination for 2015 Outstanding Restaurant from James Beard Foundation. It has claimed a spot onSan Francisco Chronicle’s Top 100 Bay Area restaurants every year of the quarter-century plus it’s been open. She was the first woman to win a medal for the U.S. at the Culinary Olympics and the third in the country to earn two Michelin stars.

But it’s something else that qualifies her the most for Foragers Fest, formerly known as the Chanterelle Cook-Off.

She’s crazy about mushrooms.

Her recent tasting menu in S.F. is loaded with them: truffled leek tortas with porcinis; seared scallop with Perigord truffles; Swiss chard ravioli with quail egg in Parmesan brodo and shaved white truffles; ridged pasta with foie gras and black truffle; and even white truffle gelato.

The menu she’s crafting for Saturday night’s collaborative dinner with Ventana Exec Chef Paul Corsentino ($175) – which follows foraging hikes ($35), a Fungus Faceoff chef showdown ($60) and more – comes similarly loaded. Think chanterelle-soba ramen; big-eye tuna with porcini; veal with crispy sweetbreads in a cauliflower mushroom-bone marrow sauce; candy cap mushroom cake with blood orange sorbet.

“Oh yes,” she says. “Every course has mushrooms.” When I asked her to imagine life without them, she got a little quiet, which is rare.

“Impossible,” she said. “Not doable.”

Like Corsentino says, “She’s obviously extremely talented, but she’s also she’s very thought provocative.” I reached her after a Tuesday dinner shift to get some of her provocative insights on other items. (For a longer version of the Q&A and a look at last year’s Fungus Faceoff winners, visit the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.)

On her mission:

As a chef and a leader, I have a mission: to help people become a little more broad-minded – to ferret out that little bit of riskiness, that one thing they haven’t had that they might really enjoy, to have them just trust me. It could be textural, aroma-driven, a strength of flavor.

On chef myths:

Chefs aren’t what the media would like the public to believe. I can’t watch the cooking shows with chefs cussing. It’s harder to have restraint and control. The idea is to get thoughts of why it was something so horrendous. Pulling rank only goes so far before it doesn’t mean a lot. The measurement of an individual is what is happening on a bad day, not a good one.

On tasting menus:

I went to New York and spent $6,000 on food in four days. The anticipation and expectation with that kind of dollars and cents is a hard combo to make sure you satisfy that guest. The more Michelin stars, same thing: Expectation is a killer. You better hit it out of the park, or they’re going home to put you on blast.

How food can tell a story:

One word I’d start with: preservation. You don’t have to lose the past to gain the future, and the kitchen is a great vehicle for history, memory and sensuality. If you’re smart you’ll hold onto the best of the past to create the future, and inform it.

On restaurant gender imbalance:

I’m probably tougher on women than guys, because I don’t want them to make excuses or find any reason not to believe they can be anyone they want to be. That there are only three women with two Michelin stars [in the U.S.] is pretty damn crappy. And we want to be recognized because we’re great, not because of boobs and vajayjay. But I’m not going to slam guys. It’s them that got me here. They made me a survivor. Bring it on.

On the industry:

It is hard on families, on normalcy, on eating right, on exercising right. The ones who make it are super-obsessed, passionate, twisted. We’re a different critter.

On San Francisco food:

I think it’s fabulous, very interesting, but I wish we had a little more backbone and integrity to be who we are – we were a seafood town, which is why preservation is so important… but cooks are suffering with rent. In my world, it’s an imbalance and it’s put our city in jeopardy.

On excellence over time:

You have to be childlike, inquisitive, open, vulnerable, admitting you don’t know it all. And try to hold onto a foundation – which should be the best of techniques, the thresholds of combinations, knowing certain things about elegance and graciousness and kindness won’t change.

On what she’d prepare for God:

Foie gras pasta. It goes with me everywhere. I hope God likes foie gras.

On the benefit of being out of cell phone range in Big Sur:

The synchronization of a beautiful visual experience, and how it rejuvenates your soul. Trees: their quiet strength [and] time-honored way of growing and providing for others. And wind: It pushes out the old, ushers in the new.

On what’s coming to foodies:

I hope fine dining will grow by demonstrating superior craftsmanship, intricacy, elegance and visionary cuisine, not by branding marketable expanded personalities. I hope for an open-mindedness amongst diners. And, a diminished attitude towards being a self-proclaimed critic and more understanding what it takes to produce a dish, from the farmer, forager or fisherman all the way to the table. Everyone needs to cook more!

QUICKBITES

• Melville Tavern in Monterey (917-7314), one of my top 10 new restaurants for 2015, introduces brunch this weekend 10am-3pm – think blackened salmon Benedict, pecans-banana pancakes, savory shaved ham flapjacks and biscuits and duck gravy with duck hash, with modest prices ($8-$14).
• Indian pop-up dinner at Happy Girl Kitchen 6pm Saturday, Jan. 23 ($55, 373-GIRL).
• ACME Coffee in Seaside (393-9113) is now open until 5pm weekdays. (Saturday still until 3pm.)
• Peter B’s BrewPub (649-2699) now does lunch by Chef Jason Giles to go with all the good beer, starting at 11am, every day of the week.
• French-born chef Jacques Zagouri, formerly of Andre’s Bouchee, reports he’s helping with the Portabello project with Dametra owners Bashar Sneeh and Faisel Nimri. Zagouri describes a fine-dining French-influenced Californian concept with things like foie gras, rack of lamb, truffles, ribeye steaks and local fish. “I want to thank all my great customers at Andre’s,” he says. “I can’t wait to see them at Portobello.”
• De Tierra does free tastings and wine deals for the 5-7pm Wednesday, Jan. 13, Wine Down Wednesday at Tarpy’s (647-1444), where there’s a new happy hour 3-6pm weekdays with $6 designer drinks, $5 wells, wines and drafts, and $4-$8 bites like Sriracha-glazed ribs and spicy tuna tacos with tobiko.
• Craft beer sales jumped up 18 percent in 2015, another year of double-digit growth. Post No Bills does a tap takeover with Alesmith Friday, Jan. 15.
• The Culinary Roundup brings the deepest roster of local chefs together for one event Sunday, Feb. 21 at Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa to benefit Rancho Cielo (444-3533, www.ranchocielo.com).
• Second annual “A Burns Supper” Scottish Dinner Celebration happens at Quail Lodge’s Peninsula Ballroom in celebration of Robert Burns with Exec Chef Kenneth MacDonald doing cock-a-leekie soup, housemade haggis and oatcakes Sunday, Jan. 24, 2015 ($85, 620-8910, tickets by Jan. 20).
• H. Jackson Brown Jr.: “Everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something.”