r/mycology • u/CaffinatedManatee • 1d ago
question Michelin starred restaurant served a dish consisting of shaved, raw porchini mushrooms and rice. Could this make some people sick?
Had a great meal on Saturday night, but vomited most of it back up about 10 hours later (after a very uncomfortable night of not sleeping).
Wife and I ate the exact same food (off of the same shared plates). She was fine.
Other than my stomach feeling more-and-more bloated over the ensuing 10 hours, I never really felt nauseated up until the final moments. And, once it came back up, that was basically it. No further symptoms.
My stomach is normally pretty robust to a wide variety of foods and have no food allergies I know of, so this was a strange thing for me. Could I have had some immune reaction the mushrooms?
Trying to figure out what happened (so I can avoid it next time lol).
EDIT: Doesn't sound like an allergic reaction. Just sounds like different people can react differently to the chitin. For me, looks like I just had a prolonged episode of ye old dyspepsia.
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u/Prestigious_Drop240 1d ago
I eat and love raw porcinis, sliced paper thin, drizzled with olive oil.
I've shared them with my friend twice and both times she threw up. It took an hour or two before she purged them.
Not sure how many other ppl have similar experiences.
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u/PreoccupiedParrot 23h ago
Who has that experience and then says "you know what actually I will try it again".
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u/jumboslick 22h ago
I'll try anything twice
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u/KittenPurrs 22h ago
Same. If I don't like it the first time, it may have been something about the preparation that didn't work for me. If I dislike it twice with different cooks/chefs involved, I'm willing to throw in the towel and accept that the food in general might not be for me.
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u/Septaceratops 8h ago
I feel like there's a pretty big difference between not liking something and throwing up from eating something. I'm not likely to eat something that makes me throw up the first time I try it.
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u/TrumpetOfDeath 23h ago
That was me with chanterelles. I had to be certain
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u/Motherdragon88 19h ago
I’ve been eating mince pies for over 50 years and I’m still not sure I like them. Every Christmas I give them another try.
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u/brotogeris1 20h ago
She may not have made the connection. It took me a while to figure out that I was allergic to avocados.
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u/Ok-Designer5442 21h ago
<whispers> these people are crazy. We are the normal ones! I haven’t eaten things that might have made me sick 30 years ago. I have trouble with ginger flavors just because my family used it as a recovery drink and I associate it with being sick.
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u/jakefishing6 20h ago
I have the same exact issue with ginger. They used to throw ginger sawdust on vomit in school. I cant eat any steak sauce. I associate the smell of ginger with vomit.
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u/ACEaton1483 19h ago
Ginger ale, Ginger pills, etc... Anything with ginger when I was sick. I can't stand even the smell of it, let alone tasting it in food. I have such a sensitive stomach that by the time I'm nauseous, there's no hope of preventing it, so any time someone made me consume some form of ginger, I vomited it right back up and then tasted and smelled vomit laden ginger in my nose and mouth. Awful stuff.
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u/bouvitude 20h ago
This was me with oysters, but only after I’d eaten several hundred over the course of my lifetime. Took a few tries to confirm that’s what it was!
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u/cyanescens_burn 16h ago
Might think it was a fluke or purely coincidence the first time. It’s not a pattern until 2+.
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u/CorpusAmygdaloideum 14h ago
I call it scientific method (and also being dumb). Just talking about myself ofc! But I also tried several times until I decided, yep mushrooms give me tremendous belly ache, I shall not eat them again. But you gotta make sure, you know? Could have been a stomach bug the first time. Could have been sth else in the food second time, etc... Pls read this with a bit of humor and don't eat food that gives you pain more than once XD
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u/sudosussudio 1d ago
Did the restaurant serve anything else unusual? As a former food writer the things that upset my stomach at Michelin starred restaurants were usually seafood or very high inulin items like sunchoke.
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u/DuckRubberDuck 23h ago
I looove sunchoke and I love sunchoke soup. Anything sunchoke really. But I rarely ever eat it, my stomach does not handle it well. Same thing with champignon soup
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u/Jack-o-Roses 23h ago
Sunchokes are very sensitive to ripeness. IIRC the amount of inulin can be overwhelming in some (many) cases. Rule of thumb is in every one that's bigger than a medium size boiled egg.
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u/P0Rt1ng4Duty 22h ago
Rule of thumb is in every one that's bigger than a medium size boiled egg.
Which, for the uninitiated, is about the same as a medium sized raw egg.
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u/Plebs-_-Placebo 14h ago
I've heard if you cook them twice it lessens the fartichoke effects. Usually boil and bake, or fry, whatever your method.
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u/CaffinatedManatee 1d ago
Hmmm, no not really. Very lightly steamed white asparagus was the only other food type/prep that I'd never had before. Had sunchoke at a different restaurant (no reaction) but it seemed like the chef knew to keep the portion to a minimum. So I assumed that must have been the case with the raw porcini too.
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u/Other-Aside-1170 1d ago
It's not inherently unsafe to eat them raw, but they will cause many people stomach upset, particularly if they are not very young and shaved thin. Reactions to wild mushrooms can be idiosyncratic to each individual
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u/All__Of_The_Hobbies 1d ago
Sounds like your stomach is likely more sensitive to mushrooms than hers is.
Does not sound allergy related
In the future, avoid raw mushrooms.
Also if you are trying a new mushroom, try a small portion first. And then if it's okay with your stomach, you can eat more the next time.
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u/CaffinatedManatee 1d ago
In the future, avoid raw mushrooms.
Yeah, I just might. Have had shaved truffles on numerous occasions, so never thought twice about it.
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u/itisoktodance 23h ago
Truffles are probably fine since it's usually just a few shavings. Assuming the amount of porcini you ate was greater
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u/ReZeroForDays 1d ago
Personally, I don't think any mushrooms should be eaten raw if at all possible. While porcini doesn't have known harmful proteins or toxins that must be cooked out, what if the mushroom isn't properly cleaned and has bacteria on it from feces or something? Even if the chitin doesn't bother your stomach, it's better to at least fry the mushrooms for a minute than risk salmonella, e. coli, and listeria.
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u/ange1bug 1d ago
Sorry but do you not eat vegetables, fruit or berries raw either?
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u/All__Of_The_Hobbies 23h ago
Yeah. Unless you eat no raw food at all, which is an odd dietary choice, raw mushrooms are not so different from eating raw vegetables for potential contamination.
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u/terminalbungus 23h ago
Not true. Most mushrooms should not be eaten raw. I personally wouldn't even eat a porcini raw but I'm particularly sensitive to raw mushrooms; they give me IBS
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u/All__Of_The_Hobbies 21h ago
We are clearly talking about mushrooms that can be eaten raw and risk of contamination. There are also vegetables that you cannot or should not eat raw.
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u/ReZeroForDays 23h ago
For vegetables, ideally I eat them cooked or somewhat sterilized with lemon juice or vinegar if it makes sense in the meal. Most fruit I eat raw, which generally less exposed to soil pathogens but there's an inherent risk with anything we eat so I don't stress that much about it.
For fungi, I tend to dehydrate them first, pour boiling water on them for soup, or at least use the residual heat from food that just finished cooking in a pot for stuff like mushroom powder.
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u/radicalfrenchfrie Central Europe 21h ago
neither vinegar nor lemon juice are capable of sterilising anything
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u/object_shelter Midwestern North America 1d ago
One of the rare mushrooms you can eat raw, but it should never be in large amounts and only from really nice specimens. I’m kind of thinking this wasn’t it, but some people also just have unique reactions to some mushrooms, even those not considered poisonous or widely eaten by others.
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u/RdCrestdBreegull Trusted ID - California 19h ago
most mushrooms are actually totally non-toxic. some popular edible mushrooms are toxic uncooked, but most are safe to eat uncooked
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u/object_shelter Midwestern North America 17h ago
I guess I would clarify that I meant it’s actively recommended to be eaten raw in small amounts, like matsutake, etc. Most field guides or cookbooks from a mushroom perspective don’t recommend eating many species outside of a few raw, even if technically nontoxic.
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u/Platitude_Platypus 21h ago
OP I would've just helped it come back up manually to get some sleep if it was lasting that long. That sounds just miserable.
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u/RobleViejo 19h ago
This is literally the definition of "indigestion": You were unable to digest the shrooms and when your stomach got tired of it, it sent it all back out.
Funny, I wonder if there is some kind of process to "pre-digest" food, maybe applying heat to it until the proteins untangle?
Clearly your wife has a better gut biome than you. Quick! Eat her doo doo! /s
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u/RdCrestdBreegull Trusted ID - California 19h ago edited 19h ago
most mushrooms in general are non-toxic. some popular edible mushrooms vary from quite toxic to extremely toxic uncooked, including in Laetiporus (chicken of the woods), Physalacriaceae (honey mushrooms), and Morchellaceae (morels)
porcini are totally safe to eat uncooked, but like another commenter said — some people may have GI reaction from uncooked mushrooms, or even from just eating a large quantity of cooked mushrooms in general
what should also be considered when deciding to eat a mushroom uncooked or not is how fresh and how mature the mushroom is. if it is a non-toxic mushroom that is super fresh and immature then there shouldn’t be an issue (depending on the person), but if it is older or has any sign of bugs then you will want to cook it. there is also the issue of potential parasites especially in more mature specimens
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u/Slow-Blacksmith3281 23h ago
Porcini makes me sick. It didn’t used to but now does every time, even cooked. Seems to be an allergy so I stopped eating them as allergies sometimes get worse with more exposure.
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u/char_ybdis 22h ago
This sounds like my experience eating porcini mushrooms before I realised I might have some sort of allergy to them. I’ve only eaten them cooked and within 30 mins I’m in the bathroom vomiting and having terrible stomach ache. I take an antihistamine to help calm the symptoms. Weirdly enough I can still eat certain types of mushrooms like chestnut, portobello and even truffles and have no issues. Now I never order dishes from restaurants that just say they have ‘mushroom’ in them, because I can never be too sure and don’t want to vomit.
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u/luredbylight 18h ago
I am allergic to Shitake mushrooms. It doesn’t happen right away, but at some point after eating them, everything comes back up. The last time i got pretty sick. Enough so that I am really careful now about mushrooms. The hard part is people keep thinking I can eat them “this one time”.
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u/Stock-Ad-7601 18h ago
I had a portobello mushroom in a burger once years ago at some fancy place my bro-in-law and his snooty wife took us to in Doylestown, PA. I had the worst food poisoning after that. I was rekt for a couple days. I love mushrooms and eat them lot but I’ve never eaten another portobello.
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u/italianmaple 22h ago
Yeah I love porcini and used to eat them raw too sometimes but not anymore. Mushrooms are very hard to digest for us, cooking them helps. More importantly cooking will kill bacteria and other parasites that are very often on or in the mushrooms, it doesnt seem worth the risk. Also the finer you break down the tough mushroom cell walls the more flavour you extract.
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u/FilecoinLurker 18h ago
Porchini are all wild foraged and not grown. Even if you didn't have to cook them you still should because they grow on the forest floor. You shouldn't eat anything raw that slugs crawled around on. If you tolerate raw button mushrooms then the chitin is likely not the issue for you but rather some bacteria from a bug that had shit on their feet visiting your mushrooms.
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u/AssumptiveMushroom 14h ago
wow I didn't know "delicious but gives you the shits" was a qualifying factor to receive a Michelin star. who knew
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u/SharkeyWoodsman 13h ago
I’ve gotten the worst stomach cramps and pain ever in my life from eating an uncooked maitake pedal! No vomiting but I couldn’t stand up straight
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u/jimthewanderer 9h ago
Small quantities should be fine for most people. Some people are extremely sensitive to the Chitin though, as in "retain line of sight with the porcelain throne" sensitive.
Bold move for a restaurant, but if it's a poncy fancy dan establishment they can probably get away with it.
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u/SurLeToit 4h ago
Maybe you took cold on your belly after eating?
Maybe simoly you ate too much or drunk too much wine?
I have an allergy to red mushrooms and I start vomiting right after consuming them. But my father who is allergic to chicken vomits after a few hours. Some allergens are not dangerous anymore after cooking the food. So everything could be.
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u/Automatic_Round_374 2h ago
i fed myself and two others a questionable bolete once. Two of us had the runs and the other felt nothing. it could be a personal thing...
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u/shroom_catcher 23h ago
Some of those Michelin star pages sell the most pretentious and rank shit. I read about one place that served rancid (literally) cheese
YoU pAy FoR tHe ExPeRiEnCe
I hope those rich cunts enjoy the experience of holding their head over a toilet bowl all night
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u/MakeAWishApe2Moon 22h ago
How very helpful of you to insult OP when he's sick and trying to find out why. 🙄
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u/shroom_catcher 22h ago
Oh shit I didn't even read the rest! Lol my bad. I really need to read more than just the title😂
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u/jesse19382 20h ago
Mushrooms shouldn’t be eaten raw.
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u/RdCrestdBreegull Trusted ID - California 19h ago
this isn’t true for most mushrooms, although there are some popular edible mushrooms that are toxic uncooked. porcini are non-toxic
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u/jesse19382 18h ago
Uncooked mushrooms are hard to digest, and you do not get the full nutritional value from uncooked mushrooms, I didn’t mean they are harmful uncooked. Same goes for kale, you might as well eat sandpaper.
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u/RdCrestdBreegull Trusted ID - California 17h ago
some mushrooms are considered delicacies uncooked though, like porcini
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u/JJ_Reads_Good 17h ago
Question: Did you and your wife both consume alcohol during the meal, and did one of you drink more than the other?
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u/Ok_Needleworker2438 1d ago
At what Michelin restaurant do you eat off the same plate as your partner??
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u/Other-Aside-1170 23h ago
Any of them that you want to?
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u/Ok_Needleworker2438 23h ago
Lol no that’s not how it works
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u/Other-Aside-1170 23h ago
I don't know who hurt you, but just try it. No one will stop you.
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u/Ok_Needleworker2438 22h ago
At a Michelin restaurant they absolutely will.
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u/Other-Aside-1170 22h ago
Assuming you're not just a troll, as an old person who has had the good fortune to eat at many Michelin restaurants, I assure you they are more than happy to allow you to share with your partner. Hell, there are many that specialize in sharing plates. Not sure what sort of experience you're picturing.
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u/Ok_Reflection2460 1d ago
A large quantity of any type of raw mushroom can cause gastrointestinal upset, due to chitin (the cell walls) being hard to digest. Some people are more sensitive to it than others. It happens with raw porcini salad sometimes, but is harmless. Sorry it happened to you.