2026 Education Program

Please join Chef/Owner Brian Lewis, of Full House Hospitality Group, with his nationally celebrated restaurants, The Cottage and OKO, based in Connecticut and New York. He has been named a 2025 James Beard Award Nominee for 2025 and semifinalist in 2018 and 2021. Chef Lewis is a culinary virtuoso and one of the most celebrated chefs in the Northeast, lauded for his commitment to quality of ingredients, seasonality, technique and innovation.

In this live demonstration session, Chef Lewis will prepare Koji Cured Local Maitake Mushroom Tacos w/ fermented gooseberry crema, sunflower salsa matcha & sugar kelp salsa verde. This dish will highlight the locally foraged ingredients from the land and sea on the Connecticut coastline, while weaving together the depth of flavors and cultural heritage of both Japanese and Mexican techniques in the most delicious and elegant expression of one of Chef Lewis’s favorite foods, THE TACO!!

Guests will experience the passionate and thoughtful insight of Chef Lewis’ approach to creating this elevated mushroom taco dish and how breaking culinary boundaries through complementary techniques, both modern and age old, and the use of exceptional ingredients can both be rooted in tradition, while being inspired by innovation.

Chef Lewis will demonstrate and guide you through the many different techniques used in this dish; koji curing, sunflower salsa matcha, handmade corn tortillas, mushroom furikake and fermented gooseberry crema. Through demonstration and discussion, Chef Lewis will explain the many layers and depth of flavors which all go into creating this beautiful taco for you to enjoy.