It’s actually a take on a sandwich we had on the menu back in 2010. Ayr’s dad used to make a mushroom pâté, baked in a fancy French pastry crust. We made our own version, and called it a mushroom loaf. Back when I ran Sunday prep, before we had our own commissary, I remember making duxelles and simmering agar agar to make the mushroom loaf “set up.” It was one of our more intense sandwiches to prep, we never quite nailed the texture of the loaf, and for that reason it kind of fell out of our rotation.

I’m not sure what came over Chris to re-dev the mushroom loaf, but boy did he do an amazing job. He’s torn apart the mushroom loaf recipe. He’s made a cranberry mayo with these beautiful cranberries from Carver, MA. He’s incorporated thin rounds of roasted delicata squash from Buckle Farm in Maine. There’s a gravy with wild kombu from Maine, local celeriac, mushrooms and lots of other ingredients that somehow smells and tastes so much like turkey gravy that I think a few people at Food Dev were thinking that we were maybe cheating.

I can promise you there were no giblets at the HUB, but it has been smelling like Thanksgiving all week. Now it’s time for the other locations to feel the festivity. The Thanksgiving Mushroom is launching tomorrow at 11am everywhere. Let us know what you think.