Meet Koji, Your New Favorite Fungus

It’s impossible to imagine Japanese meals without soy sauce,
or the umami-rich fermented bean paste called miso, or the
rice-based spirit known as sake. Which means that Japanese cuisine
depends on the one fungus that enables the fermentation of all
these delicious foods: koji. Today, American chefs are discovering
what Asian cooks have known for centuries, that koji is a microbial
powerhouse with seemingly magical abilities to completely
transform food. But how does a mold from a family of microbes known
for their toxicity turn salty, mashed beans into sticky, succulent
miso? How did koji make its way from Japan to the U.S.? And
how might the weird and wonderful ways chefs in the U.S. are
now using koji transform the American dinner table, too? Learn
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