(Mysterious piano music) CHRIS AMENDOLA: Being in the woods for me, it almost started off as just kind of solitude, clearing my mind.

Later I worked for a chef who took me out a couple times to go foraging, and it just ignited a huge fire in me.

But you're going to have to know what to look for out in the woods.

This is not a game you want to play with.

Uh, it's a dangerous world.

Situations change on a turn of a dime.

(Chatter of conversation in kitchen) (Soft tapping of knife) CHRIS: Foraged, a hyper-seasonal eatery, is just a product of my imagination.

So, our Foraged concept to me is just kind of everything I loved about the industry.

(Reflective music) To me, it's important cooking with the seasons and what the farmers have.

CHRIS: Taking a tomato in the middle of summertime, all it really needs is a little bit of salt, uh and it's, it's beautiful.

Whether it's working with produce farms or animal farms, we don't deal with any conventional farms.

The meats that we serve here are humanely raised.

And I think it's important for the community, supporting your local farms and sustainable practices of how they're treating the earth and, you know, what they're doing to put back into the soil.

(Reflective music continues) CHRIS: Sustainability is definitely a huge part of it especially when it comes to foraging.

Plants need to be able to go through their life cycle to be able to reproduce and come back for next year.

So, if you go to the woods and take all the plants that you see, chances are they're not going to come back for next year.

CHRIS: I like to call these the forager snack because these never make it back to the restaurant.

Uh, mushrooms are a little bit different because they're an underground network of mycelium.

You know, you can't really ever do anything to harm that, and I've had- I have mushroom spots that I've been going to for 10 plus years now, and uh, every year they produce like crazy.

CHRIS: It's in the porcini family.

PRODUCER: Oh.

CHRIS: It's got white pores.

PRODUCER: The pores are under the cap?

CHRIS: Yeah.

PRODUCER: Okay.

CHRIS: That's how it releases its spores.

PRODUCER: So, if it's white you're in the clear is what you're saying?

PRODUCER 2: Not yet, it's white.

It doesn't bruise blue, and it doesn't taste bitter, right?

CHRIS: If it doesn't stain blue... See how it tastes delicious.

PRODUCER 2: Yeah.

CHRIS: That would be a, that would be a choice bolete right there.

We put so much mushrooms through here it kind of blows my mind on a, on a year-to-year basis.

CHRIS: If it's a mushroom that I do not know, like, I am doing my research.

You know, I'll eat it before I serve anybody else.

That's the deadly ones right here.

PRODUCER: And you can tell that how?

CHRIS: That will take you down.

See how it's...

So, this is an amanita.

See how it's coming out, uh and then it has these like warts on top.

PRODUCER: Yeah.

CHRIS: Look at that little guy.

PRODUCER: Like, will one of those put like me down?

CHRIS: Oh, yeah.

Definitely, it's important to know what you're eating before you eat it.

(Rustling) CHRIS: Nope, I'm not even tasting that one.

(Laughter) CHRIS: These ones are for the restaurant.

(Laughter) Mr. Slug, you can't have my mushroom.

These are like my favorite stage to find these in.

They're not buggy.

CHRIS: Man, that one's like full grown already.

Wow, and not buggy at all.

Oh my gosh.

PRODUCER: That's a nice, little spot you found.

CHRIS: You know, for me mushrooms, um, each one has its own cooking method.

Um, you know, whether it's just sautéed with some butter and thyme and garlic, or if it's, you know, roasted out in the oven, um, you know, I feel like each mushroom has something to give, and, you know, a very uh, specific way that you know should be cooked to kind of really uh enhance its flavor and kind of bring light to that mushroom.

This is uh super cool to see right here.

MALE VOICE: I think there's a big one right here.

CHRIS: These are, these are my absolute favorite.

These are black trumpets.

That guy's perfect, right there.

PRODUCER: That shade is welcome.

So, what's the tube for?

Like what's like the purpose of why they grow like that?

CHRIS: I don't know why like specifically like they grow in that shape.

PRODUCER: Yeah.

It almost seems like it'd be like a predatory like mushroom, you know.

When something falls in, it just captures it.

CHRIS: That'd be kind of dope.

PRODUCER: Right?

CHRIS: To me there's 52 seasons a year.

I believe that each week has something new to bring and something new to be excited about, especially coming into springtime and summer.

It's such an amazing time to cook.

(Bright melodic music) CHRIS: Jake, can I pass this over?

You have any empty sheet trays over there?

JAKE: Uh....no.

CHRIS: No?

YOUNG MALE: I can give you a half.

CHRIS: Uh, I need a lot more than that.

CHRIS: Uh, I first discovered my love for cooking when I was a kid.

I grew up with my family cooking a lot especially one of my aunts.

Part of my weekly chores was to record "Great Chefs of the World" and "Great Chefs of France" on a VCR.

My stepdad had me record these shows because he was super into cooking, and it was some of the pioneers of the industry.

WOMAN: Behind.

CHRIS: So, I would sit there and watch these shows and found it super fascinating.

Ryan, can I get a little pork sauce?

CHRIS: So, there was this one night when I was younger.

I must have been, I don't know, seven, eight, nine or so.

Somewhere.

And I woke up hungry and looked in the refrigerator, and uh, I saw some pork chops my parents had in there.

And I was like, I'll just cook up a couple pork chops and did it just like I saw them do on the TV show.

I cooked two of them, and it just blew my mind how delicious it was.

Uh, and I did that, you know?

And it was just a very special moment in in my life.

And so, I sat there and ate them and ended up cooking the rest of the pack of pork chops.

And my parents weren't too happy with me the next day that I had eaten all the pork chops that was supposed to be for dinner the next day, but it was kind of that moment, you know.

It was just eye-opening, you know, that this is what I wanted to do.

And I went to a vocational school called the Southeast Institute of Culinary Arts.

I loved it.

I loved going there every day and learning about cooking.

(Slow piano music) CHRIS: But then my teenage years kind of went through a really dark path.

From about I would say about 13-years-old, 12 or 13-years-old, I kind of started dipping my toes in um, a lot of drugs.

CHRIS: Trying to, you know, fit in and went down this road, you know, I guess a lot of people don't really come back from.

You know, by all uh means of the definition of the word "junkie," I was- I was there, um, you know, doing probably more drugs than one person could probably ever imagine doing.

(Feet crunching the gravel) It's still kind of a toss-up with my parents whether I got kicked out, or I ran away, but uh at 16, um, you know for, for a little while, you know, I'd have to find some places to sleep that uh were definitely not on a couch or in somebody's house, you know, whether it was um, you know, on a park bench, or, you know, somewhere covered, trying to find food and shelter.

(Music continues) It kind of got to a point where I was selling a lot of drugs.

I was doing way more drugs than I was selling.

It got to be really, really bad.

You know I don't really know what- what led me there.

It's still probably something I'm trying to figure out.

I did a lot of things that I'm not proud of by any means.

I obviously did what I had to do to survive, and I had to stop.

(Music fades out) Thankfully I got out of it, and um you know, I really think cooking saved my life in that aspect.

I ended up getting a job at this restaurant in the town that I grew up in.

I just buried myself in work.

From the time that I woke up, I would just go in, work for free until I was scheduled and then clock in, and go home at the end of the night.

And I'd just be so tired that I didn't want to do anything else.

It was great for him and the business, but uh for me, it was, it was saving my life.

But I kept running into people that I didn't necessarily want to see.

So, you know, that's when I decided I had to move away, to get out of that world, but to also be something and make something of my life.

CHRIS: You know, just still trying to escape that lifestyle, every year and a half, two years, I'd pack up and move somewhere else.

You know you get to learn other cultures and see other cities and different states, and Baltimore really captivated me.

And then I got my hands on a little 26-seat restaurant about five-and-a-half years ago.

But it was a huge learning experience, you know.

I thought I knew how to run a business and uh the ins and outs of, you know, the day-to-day operation, and I was completely wrong.

They say the first three years of uh opening a restaurant are um what makes or breaks a restaurant, and year one and two were probably the hardest years of my life.

I opened Foraged with very, very little working capital.

Most of it was on credit cards.

Our first month open we lost like 10 grand, and I was like, oh man, this is it, you know?

But we kept pushing through, day to day, week to week, trying to pay bills and pay labor and all this.

We ended up making it through year two, and I was like super stoked, and I was like, you know, we got one more year.

Um, you know, and I have a much better understanding of how to run a business and all this, and I think year three is going to be easy.

That was January 2020.

Come March of 2020, uh we were mandated to shut down uh, cause of COVID, and I was just like, you know, I thought that was, I thought that was the end for us.

(Bright music) CHRIS: Thankfully you know we got a lot of grants and help from the government financially.

And so I completely redid the menu to make it kind of more to-go friendly um, and I didn't really have any money to pay staff.

So, like the first week, I was there just doing it all by myself.

(Sizzling) (Scratching of spoon in pot) Taking to go orders, cooking them all, packing it all, taking it outside to the guest.

It was just, it was insane.

But then I started, you know, being able to generate a little bit of revenue to be able to bring some of my team back.

We just started coming up with every idea that we could possibly do to stay relevant.

We were doing um, at-home cooking demos for a while where we would prep out this meal and send them all the ingredients and send them a video that they could cook along with me.

CHRIS: "We're going to take our pasta try and try and very lightly just dust off any excess flour or semolina that's on it."

Looking back, I think definitely that time in my life, going down that wrong path, made me able to adapt and change.

"Just go ahead and throw it right in the water."

You know if it wasn't for um my team at that time and, you know, my loyal guests like we probably would have never made it through that.

SERVER: Hi, how's it going?

(Chatter of conversation inside restaurant) CHRIS: Which still to this day I'm like in shock that not only did we make it through that, we got our hands on a bigger restaurant space, and we're able to expand the business and expand the operation.

So, for that, I mean, I'm forever grateful.

(Reflective music) CHRIS: All right, guys, let's go, yeah?

FEMALE SERVER: Welcome back.

I'll be taking care of you.

I know you folks have dined with us before, but we have all our pig parts back.

We're known for that.

Have you had the stew and the crab cake?

CUSTOMER: Yes.

FEMALE SERVER: Some of our staple dishes?

Okay, perfect.

Okay.

CUSTOMER: Um, I think we're going to do the spare ribs.

FEMALE SERVER: Great.

CUSTOMER: And the beet salad.

FEMALE SERVER: Okay.

And the ears, okay.

CUSTOMER: And I'm going to get a glass of the Syrah.

FEMALE SERVER: Okay.

CUSTOMER 2: Same.

FEMALE SERVER: So, two glasses of the Syrah.

Wonderful.

Thanks, folks.

CUSTOMER 2: Awesome.

Thank you.

FEMALE SERVER: You're welcome.

CHRIS: And um this year, um, I became a James Beard nominated chef for "Best Chef Mid-Atlantic."

One of the other Baltimore nominees texted me.

All he said was congrats on the Beard, and I was like, "What are you talking about, man?"

I thought he maybe sent it to the wrong person.

So, I pulled up '23's list, and oh man, there was my name on top of that list.

And I was, I was speechless.

I grew up in this industry looking at that list every year, looking at these chefs and being inspired about what they were doing.

So, this is just validation, you know, for everything that we're doing and how we're doing it.

CHRIS: We have order fire walking in: cheek, crab cake, focaccia, polenta and a mushroom stew.

STAFF MEMBER: Yes.

FEMALE SERVER: Okay, you've got everything you need?

You're welcome.

Is there anything else I can bring you at the moment?

(Kitchen sounds and ringing of bell) MALE CUSTOMER: As good as always.

CHRIS: Can I get a scallop C1, oyster C2 on 25?

(More sounds of cooking in kitchen) (Restaurant chatter) SERVER: Enjoy.

CHRIS: Now we're going two polenta, a crab cake, a scallop, a beet salad, and a mushroom stew.

CHRIS: And seeing those people come in and tasting something and seeing their eyes light up, or you know, for them to tell me it was one of the best meals that they ever ate in their life, like that to me makes everything worth it.

Can I get a spare rib to B7, please?

Two scallop, two risotto...

Looking back on it, I probably traded one addiction for the other, but it's things like that that keep me going working 80-90 hours a week in this industry and with this restaurant.

I need uh, two cheek, a jowl, a tongue, a liver mousse, a kidney pie, and a spare rib.

STAFF: Yes.

(Ringing bell) CUSTOMER: I'm glad we got our own because I wouldn't have wanted to share this.

(Chuckles) CHRIS: Can I get catfish one, lamb two on 102?

Rowan, please make sure you have two cheek, a jowl, a tongue.

(Mysterious music) CHRIS: You know I hope that people take away from this story or a story of my life, you know, I just want people to know like you know you can do anything you set your mind to... As long as you're focused and have goals you can literally achieve anything you want.

(Music continues) I went from being a homeless 16-year-old junkie, uh high school dropout...

But I was fortunate enough to have this drive.

Now, um, every day I wake up, I get to live out a dream that I had when, when I was, when I was a kid.

I mean, I can't tell you how many countless of hours I've spent just wandering the woods... And not finding anything, and you know, that's a big part of foraging.

But, it's definitely one of those things I wouldn't trade for the world.

If anything, it's a nice walk in the woods.

(chuckles) (Music continues)