On an early autumnal morning in Cape Town, I find myself roaming the backslope of Table Mountain, one of a party of three. Deep in the forest ahead, I hear Chef Chris Erasmus enthusiastically proclaim a find. Pausing for the briefest of moments, I up my pace and follow in the general direction of his excitement. Climbing over a decaying branch in the mushy forest undergrowth, I offer up a plea, silently imploring that this branch not be home to one of the 22 species of snakes to be found on the mountain. I traverse the detritus and come away unscathed; a bead of sweat navigating its way down my cap peak and onto my right temple.

As I approach Chef Chris and Chef Milda Deale, the third member of our party, I catch the phrase Lactarius deliciosus, which I subsequently learn translates to pine ring mushrooms. Chris kneels to gently extract a specimen from the forest floor using a knife, explaining that pine rings are edible mushrooms most often identified by their orange and green cap. But it’s the delicate circles that entice my photographer’s eye as I fire off a few frames of the fungi. The three of us are on a foraging foray, seeking out mushrooms which Chef Milda will later use to create some rather interesting dishes. But it all depends on what we find.