From the classic Italian risotto to the exotic Mushroom Bhaji, Ever Wondered unearths the true magic of mushrooms. Mushrooms have been seen with awe and suspicion for centuries - the Aztecs saw them as the food of the gods and the Romans liked eating them with honey.

Also, for the Romans, mushrooms could be used for a darker purpose than eating. Emperor Claudius was poisoned by his wife when she slipped him a toxic mushroom in order to ensure her son Nero's accession to the throne.

Ever Wondered reveals why Asian civilizations have understood the properties of mushrooms and have cultivated them for food and medicine for thousands of years – and how unusual Japanese mushrooms such as shimeji, nameko and eyringi are being cultivated in Britain today. Also what is a mushroom flush, how do mushroom growers cultivate mushrooms all year round and what is the technology behind Quorn - a £100 million brand of mycoprotein produced from a fungus?

In the kitchen Paul Merrett shows how to achieve a perfect warm mushroom salad, reveals the science behind some of the spices used in a mushroom bhaji, what the secret is behind cooking the ultimate mushroom risotto, and how to create the best ever mushrooms on toast

Content last updated: 22/04/2005

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