“You don’t have to do—you just have to undo.”

An Interview with Food Forager Tama Matsuoka Wong

If you ever see a petite, dark-haired woman dwarfed by two oversized black garbage bags in Midtown Manhattan, you may have spotted Tama Matsuoka Wong on her way to deliver wild plants like bee balm, Japanese barberry, and cardamine to chefs at some of the city’s best restaurants. Wong, a corporate lawyer-turned-forager and author of the James Beard Award-nominated cookbook Foraged Flavor, is a dynamic personality, bursting with ideas and questions, her words tumbling over each other as she talks. We met for lunch to discuss foraging, and I felt inspired listening to her eagerly, earnestly describe her work. ­—Stephanie Palumbo

TAMA MATSUOKA WONG: I grew up in New Jersey, but I moved to Hong Kong for twelve years. When I came back, I was like, wow, I have more land now than anybody had in Hong Kong. I wanted a vegetable garden, but I consider myself a black thumb gardener. So I just looked at what was there already, in my backyard.

THE BELIEVER: Did you know anything about plants at that point?

TMW: I started little by little—I’d see something and look it up. In the beginning, I think I knew what an oak tree was. But I got sucked in. It’s one of those things… The more you get into it, the more it gives back to you.

BLVR: I know that you’re working with Gramercy Tavern and a number of other highly-regarded restaurants now, but you began at Daniel Boulud’s restaurant Daniel. How did you begin working with them?

TMW: It was very random. In 2009, I had friends invite me to the restaurant for dinner, and they pushed me to bring stuff in. Eddy [Leroux, Chef de Cuisine] answered us in the kitchen, and he made this amazing dish out of what I brought him. Then we went back to the kitchen, and he was curious, asking me what else I had in my little meadow. I said I had lots of things, and he was like, “Bring me everything.”

BLVR: Did you really bring him everything you had?

TMW: I had to warn him, I’m really passionate about this, so if you tell me to, I’m going to. I’d never bring him anything I hadn’t identified somewhat—I knew what it was, down to the species, and that it had been edible somewhere in human history. My part was to find him what was edible, and his job was to make it delicious.

BLVR: How can someone tell if a plant is inedible or poisonous?

TMW: I wouldn’t recommend that people start with mushrooms, because they can be...