Bonnie: A few weeks ago, a publicist offered the three of us some wild, 100 percent organic, cultivated mushrooms. “We’re encouraging your writing about, blogging and cooking with …. four varieties of mushrooms,” she emailed.

Who could resist? Once we each received a sampling containing king trumpet; brown beech; white beech and maitake or “hen of the woods” mushrooms, we set about cooking with them. It was unanimous. Seems we each found the robust earthy flavor of the maitake the most flavorful and decided to select it as our FeaturedBite — although you can’t go wrong with any of them. The maitake mushrooms are medium to dark brown, have odd-shaped brown caps and are clustered at the base.

To cook, I just cut off the base, gently pulled them apart and sautéed them in a bit of extra virgin olive oil with freshly minced garlic. A sprinkling of fresh black pepper and a pinch of sea salt was all these needed for a sublime treat.

To be a bit fancier, I would deglaze my pan with some dry vermouth or sherry. (Deglaze: is just a term for adding liquid — usually wine or stock — to the cooking pan, and scraping up the bits of food that adhered to your pan during the cooking. This is then poured over the food you just prepared.)

I also mixed them with freshly sautéed spinach, added them to my sliced tomato and goat cheese frittata and to my linguine sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and served them atop a toasted sliced baguette garnished with minced fresh parsley.

The company’s press release states that the ”maitake is considered to be a powerful medicinal mushroom. Research has shown maitake extracts strengthen the immune system and can be an aid in modulating glucose levels in diabetics.” I haven’t confirmed that by talking to the researchers, but thought I’d share this information. Consider it as food for thought, not scientific fact.

So who else is using these delicious maitake mushrooms other than the Leblang family? Chef Gene Kato of New York’s Japonais makes steamed Chilean Sea Bass with Maitakes and Bamboo Shoots; Chef Jason Niederkorn at Marina Del Ray’s Cafe Del Rey serves Maitake Mushroom Agnolotti, a kind of ravioli; Sonoma’s Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar offers a brown beech, white beech, maitake and shitake mushroom tart; and Bay Area’s Jason Niederkorn serves a maitake mushroom consommé that was listed as one of Food and Wine’s 2007 Top 10 restaurant dishes.

Bryan: This is one of the funnier posts I’ve had to write here at Bite of the Best. There is nothing particularly hilarious about the product at hand (maitake mushrooms by Golden Gourmet, aka The Kinoko Company); the humor lies in my past treatment of mushrooms in general. I’ve mentioned in previous articles that I was, at one time, a very picky eater. Never did my past food finickiness reach greater heights than with mushrooms. I would literally plead with my mother not to cook mushrooms. Note that I wasn’t pleading with her for me not to eat them — that was never going to happen. Actually I was begging for them not to be cooked at all. There are a few documented occurrences of me literally fleeing the house to avoid the wafting scent of sautéing mushrooms. I could not stand the smell, let alone stomach the thought of these bizarre little things in my food.

Much has changed and I now adore all foods. I eat mushrooms; I’ll even cook mushrooms. I wouldn’t say that they are highly represented on my food pyramid, but I’m not against throwing a handful into a red sauce or stir fry. I’ll even go solo on a portabello burger or parmigiana on occasion. Aside from the meaty portabellos, I find my mushrooms are usually canned and pretty benign looking. I must let you know that the maitake are a bit “scarier’” to the novice fungus eater. Think about it this way: Try to get someone to try calamari for the first time. Then try and get them to try the tentacle parts. Maitakes are quite oddly shaped, as well as a bit chewier and earthier than your average mushroom. This may make for an overly hesitant first reaction. But mushroom lovers will soon find that this variety is more than a mix-in. It’s a side unto its own.

The maitake takes well to sautées, boils, steamers and even the grill. They will, like most mushrooms, hold stock and marinade flavors incredibly well, blending together with other components of a dish. Though they are mostly used in Asian cuisine, you can find quick and easy ways to incorporate them into any meal routine (simply add to salads or chop with garlic to garnish hot dogs or hamburgers for the cookout). This variety is very high in niacin, potassium and vitamin D, with only 16 calories per (enormous) serving. They’re a healthy addition to any diet.

Eric: The maitake variety of mushroom, straight from the special-effects department of a B-horror movie, is without a doubt something different – in texture, taste and shape – but more importantly, it is a food worth trying.

Let me start by saying that I am not an avid mushroom eater; there is something typically unsettling about eating a “fungus,” and I generally try to avoid incorporating them into my food (this mind-set also lends itself to my disgust of the mold family – hello Roquefort). On the contrary, I am a strong advocate of trying every, and any, food at least once. This philosophy has led me to appreciate the tenderness of well-prepared chicken hearts, and find the utter disgust of roasted goat eyeballs.

Not many products instantly intrigue me – I usually have pretty good intuition for how different foods will taste and therefore forgo the excitement of eating something new – but I was instantly drawn to the peculiarity of the maitake mushroom. Before I knew it, I had the mushrooms out of the package, on my chopping board and surrounded by the appropriate Asian cuisine add-ins (chicken, shrimp, garlic, sesame oil, etc). I prepared them as I would a normal mushroom – but the outcome was far from normal. The texture was similar to the meatiness of a portabello, and the taste had a very earthy-spiciness to it.

This variety of mushroom has truly won me over. I suggest that the next time you’re in the supermarket, instead of buying the generic mass-produced mushrooms, spend the additional money to buy a product that will help to change your perspective on what a mushroom should really taste like.