Zoe Robertson meets Matthew Hall, supplier of fabulous fungi to some of the North East’s best chefs
Matthew Hall loves mushrooms – foraging for them, growing them, and cooking with them. He describes his occupation as “part farmer, part scientist” and his business, By The Bay Mushroom Co., has grown from a small passion project into a sought-after supplier of speciality fungi with an impressive portfolio of local restaurants on its order books – including the likes of Soku, Miso, Flint, Restaurant Pine, and Cook House.
Matthew, 38, lives in Whitley Bay with his partner, Susie, and their son Hunter, 8, and daughter Asta, 7. He has always loved cooking and sourcing unusual ingredients but confesses that he didn’t always like mushrooms. “I forced myself to try them at first because I was so interested in them. I started having them on toast for breakfast,” he says. During lockdown he decided to try growing some oyster mushrooms. “The first batch looked really spindly and didn’t have nice big caps, but they tasted awesome so I grew more,” he says.
As his enthusiasm intensified, he rented a small room above a gym to have more space for cultivation. “I got some decent results, and in 2022 I started to supply Wild Fire Pizza in Sunderland,” he says. Joe at Wild Fire knew Matthew through his rock band, Little Comets. “It was semi-regular at first because I hadn’t figured out how to have a consistent flow of mushrooms growing.” When Miso in Ouseburn came on board, Matthew realised he might be able to expand the business more seriously. Matthew’s mushrooms remain a regular fixture on Miso’s menu, currently being served with a lovage emulsion, mint, parsley and horseradish.
Now in a small industrial unit in Killingworth, Matthew has installed an incubation lab with HEPA filtered air. There’s also a self-designed substrate steriliser and a fruiting tent, capable of yielding up to 30kg of mushrooms per week. “I grow strains that are season-specific as the fruiting tent isn’t heated. I’m just starting to grow the autumn strains now as the weather is getting cooler.” His autumn specials will include freckle chestnuts, king blue oysters and black pearl oysters.
A recent triumph in the incubation lab has seen Matthew successfully clone some oyster mushrooms he foraged for in Holywell Dene. “I clone them on agar in a petri dish. It’s a mad process but loads of fun, and when I do that I can offer local strains to chefs in the area.” Despite their popularity, some of the native strains don’t yield enough to be commercially viable, as Matthew explains – “My cloned mushroom from Holywell Dene would only yield about 600g per block, compared to 1kg from the usual strain I use, but it does scratch my creative itch and scientific curiosity.”
Matthew is fascinated by every stage of mushroom cultivation. “One of the things I love and hate about my process is that I do everything,” he says. “From that little syringe of liquid culture, to the grain, making the substrate, the inoculations… right up to the harvesting and deliveries.” The process was born out of necessity at first, but he has ended up preferring it because he controls everything from start to finish – or spore to store as the American mushroom farms say.
In order to grow, mushroom spores need to feed on a substrate material. Matthew makes his own substrate using a specific ratio of hardwood fuel pellets (waste wood from sawmills), and soy hulls (a waste product from soy beans) sourced by the tonne by an agricultural supplier. He’s perfected the sterilisation process, which allows the delicate spores to multiply and form a solid white mycelium block. If the mycelium is successful, tiny pins will form, which then develop into flushes of full-sized fungi. Some species are trickier than others at the first stage, especially the popular Lion’s Mane, which he describes as “finicky”. It can be extremely frustrating when the mycelium stage goes wrong, as Matthew says, “Every day mushrooms teach me something new. Whether it’s to refine the process or just to slow down and take more care.”
With the growing demand for his produce, Matthew needs to expand his production capacity. “I used to grow shiitake, they tasted amazing, but the incubation time is 3-4 months and I just don’t have the space to incubate them for that long,” he admits. “I do love a challenge but the business growth aspect of it is super-challenging. With the amount I need to supply everyone, I don’t have much margin for error.”
Matthew harvests his mushrooms and delivers them within the hour. “All the chefs I work with really value the freshness, I don’t like it when commercially grown mushrooms are refrigerated for days before they’re delivered,” he says.
That level of care at every stage of the process is why By The Bay Mushroom Co. is held in such high regard. A recent pinch-me moment for Matthew came when Anna Hedworth asked him to supply her restaurant – Cook House in Ouseburn. “That’s a place that I really wanted to get on board with, I was so chuffed when she asked.” At Cook House, the oyster mushrooms are served on toasted sourdough with leek cashew cream and lemon salsa, or grilled with a chilli crisp aioli.
The day-to-day work can be arduous, so Matthew keeps his passion alive by foraging for new mushrooms in the local area. “I’ve always loved being outdoors but I’m really into the foraging now,” he says. “I found some Chicken of the Woods in Seaham the other day after I delivered to Seaham Hall. I spotted an oak tree while we were driving along, so I got the kids out the car and we went searching round the tree on a side quest.”
Whether they’re foraged or grown in his production unit, Matthew always tries a new batch of mushrooms by frying them in a little bit of butter and serving them on toast. He’s working on convincing Susie to love mushrooms too. “I made her Lion’s Mane linguine recently and she actually loved it. It’s got a slightly seafoody taste so it’s almost like a crab linguine,” he says.
Matthew’s business has sustainability at its heart. He is already collaborating with Threads in the Ground, which teaches mushroom sculpting workshops to encourage creative conversations about climate change. In the future he would love to expand his offering to supply kits for people to grow mushrooms to cook with at home.
He also has exciting areas for growth – such as supplying The Forest Side Hotel in Grasmere with fruiting blocks to grow their own mushrooms for the Michelin-starred restaurant. Matthew doesn’t seem inclined to gate-keep any of his work – he’s keen for as many people as possible to share his knowledge and love of mushrooms – and he is well on his way to growing something incredible.
When foraging for mushrooms, it is essential you have researched what you are foraging – to stay safe and identify the right fungi, and know what to do with it.
Matthew Hall’s top five mushrooms to forage for in autumn
Trooping funnel mushroom – Clitocybe geotropa – “The first mushroom I ever foraged, identified and ate”
Porcini – Boletus edulis – “They’re also called penny buns due to the round cap”
Horse mushrooms – Agaricus arvensis – “A close relation to the button mushroom but wild and so much tastier”
Wood Blewit – Lepista nuda – “A wintery one, tasty and purple”
Saffron Milk Cap – Lactarius deliciosus – “Turns green when you cook it, which is cool!”
