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Watch Rick Bayless Be A Fun Guy With Mushroom, Corn Smut Tacos

It’s National Taco Day

Rick Bayless working with corn smut.
Rick Bayless working with corn smut.
YouTube
Ashok Selvam is the editor of Eater Chicago and a native Chicagoan armed with more than two decades of award-winning journalism. Now covering the world of restaurants and food, his nut graphs are super nutty.

It’s National Taco Day and Taco Tuesday, a Super Bowl of sorts for Chicago’s Rick Bayless. The celebrity chef proved he was prepared this morning by uploading a video showing the chef making tacos from local mushrooms and corn smut. Corn smut, or huitlacoche, is corn fungus—a delicacy in Mexico.

Corn smut is unique in the U.S., an earthy and sweet fungus. Some folks are intimidated by it, so Bayless layers it with a medley of other mushrooms, some of which he said could be found over at local farmer’s markets.

"If you’re adventurous, maybe not quite that adventurous, this will give you the flavor of huitlacoche without going all the way to 100 percent," Bayless said on video.

Bayless isn’t the only Chicago chef that’s intrigued by huitlacoche. His former chef at Frontera, Brian Enyart—now over at Logan Square’s Dos Urban Cantina—talked to the Tribune about the ingredient back in August.

"I like to refer it to Elephant Man’s corn," Enyart told the Tribune.

Watch Bayless below.