Forget 'Fine Dining,' the Latest Food Trend Is All About 'Find Dining'

Travel + Leisure

2 days ago

I was just steps into the redwood forest when my guide, Ty Kun, began filling his wicker basket with fiddleheads. Then he spotted a patch of pea-green miner's lettuce, which looks like a mini lily pad, and plucked a few leaves.
'Devour the whole thing,' he said, handing it to me. 'Tastes like spinach!' A salad made with ingredients found on an excursion with No Taste Like Home, in North Carolina.
We were in northern Sonoma County, California, spending a few hours exploring the woods and tide pools in search of wild edibles. The excursion, which Sonoma County Tourism started offering earlier this year, would end at Timber Cove Resort , where our finds would be turned into hyperlocal dishes: morels stuffed with wild onions and lemonade flavored with the tart, heart-shaped leaves of redwood sorrel. Porcini hunting near Tutka Bay Lodge.
While the Taste of Coastal Foraging tour is new, the concept is as old as humankind. Lately the ancient practice is having a renaissance, fueled not only by an interest in local flavors but also by an increased desire among travelers to get outdoors. That's prompted tourism organizations like Sonoma's, as well as high-end hotels and cruise lines, to craft new programs.
'People are desperate to get outside and connect to nature,' says Natasha Lloyd, the in-house forager at the Fife Arms , a hotel near Scotland's Balmoral Castle. She guides guests on foraging walks through areas untouched by farming on the outskirts of the village of Braemar. 'It's a beautifully pristine environment,' Lloyd explains. 'There are probably mushrooms we haven't even discovered yet.'
Not that foraging is limited to biodiversity hot spots like the Scottish Highlands or the California coast. Steve Brill has led foraging expeditions in New York's Central Park since the early 1980s; in the Chicago area, forager Dave Odd leads what he calls Eat the Neighborhood tours that spotlight dozens of edible and medicinal plants.
'The whole point is to show people how much stuff is out there, even in an urban setting,' Odd says.
Cruise lines have recently added foraging to their shore-excursion lineups. Windstar Cruises, for example, will begin offering truffle hunting in Tuscany in 2026 as an option for guests stopping in Livorno. Silversea can arrange forages in rural Puglia in the company of experts who can point out prime pickings.
'Every place has its different, unique foods, so foraging is literally giving you a taste of the place,' explains Alan Muskat, the founder of No Taste Like Home. His expertise is in and around Asheville, North Carolina, where he leads three-hour explorations in search of mushrooms, berries, and edible greens. Participants can then take the pickings to their choice of several partner restaurants to be prepared. 'You don't know what you're going to find,' Muskat says. 'And that makes it exciting.'
Seaweed in California
Commercial fisherman turned psychotherapist Spencer Marley, of Marley Family Seaweeds, sold the stuff at farmers' markets before starting seaside tours on the Central Coast.
Herbs in Sweden
Eva Gunnare, of Essense of Lapland, leads what she calls 'flavor walks' in Swedish Lapland, sharing tastes gleaned from the region and stories of the Indigenous Sami culture.
Mushrooms in Wisconsin
Northern Mushroom Tours connects mycologists with enthusiasts to hunt for chanterelles, black trumpets, and other fungi in the state's northwest.
Wild plants in Australia
Based near Hobart, Tasmania, Sirocco South arranges small-group walks to track down oysters and wild plants, followed by a six-course alfresco lunch made, in part, from what's foraged.
Berries in Alaska
Tutka Bay Lodge, on the Kenai Peninsula, can arrange chef-led walks in search of ingredients such as blueberries, rose hips, and hedgehog mushrooms.
Mushrooms in Chile
Based on the temperate central coast of Chile, not far from Santiago, Pichilemu Silvestre takes guests through wetlands and forests to hunt for wild mushrooms and other edible plants.
Remedies in Austria
Near Salzburg, Austria, Rosewood Schloss Fuschl has an in-house herbalist who hosts countryside walks focused on medicinal botanicals, including elderberry and wild garlic.
A version of this story appeared in the September 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline "Find Dining."