A California Chef Embraces Mushrooms During Their Meatiest Moment

Falling from the top of a 16-foot retaining wall, breaking your leg, getting rescued by paramedics with a hoist and ladder, and then almost being prosecuted for trespassing isn’t the way most chefs obtain their signature ingredient, but Anthony Gerbino was pleased with his haul that March day in 2019. 

“We served the mushrooms that fell with me that night,” he says. “That’s what I’m most proud of.”

At Julia’s...