To the gourmet, Morilles and Cèpes are treasure throve. Chateaunriand and Escoffier, responsible for classic cuisine, acknowledge their debt to them. A flavour, embellishment or constituent for a sauce, they can transform the merest fillet into a dish to excite the most jaded, or educated palate.

It is perhaps one of nature’s kinder gesture that by careful drying and packaging, none of the essential flavour and “nose” is lost.

These are the fragile damsels of the woodlands; shy, unassuming in appearance and the quarry of the specialist fungi-hunter. Not surprisingly, the market always exceeds the supply and for the finest quality, the demand can barely be met.