Press

Chef Cameron Lee Dunlap is a survival forager, which means he could be lost in the woods of Oregon for weeks and live off of what he finds. But at Morchella, a restaurant dedicated to foraged and wild foods, he serves a menu that goes far beyond survival. Here you won’t find any chicken or beef or fancy cheeses, but depending on the season, you will taste venison tartare bathed in fermented leek aioli with crispy lavash crackers. Or a cushion of porcini bread pudding topped with an umami bomb of tender, saucy braised duck. The wines are all natural and local, the atmosphere is cozy and homey, and the service is warm and knowledgeable.

When Cameron Dunlap was working his first executive chef gig — running the kitchen at Northwest Portland gastropub 23Hoyt — he wanted to design some recipes that would be simple, easy to nail, and good for chefs just starting out in his kitchen.

Chef Cameron Lee Dunlap has a story he likes to tell about his food influences. In 2016, he was foraging spruce tips in the Tillamook State Forest for use in his dinner series Origin Wild. In order to get higher in a tree for better spruce tips, he climbed upon a log, only to fall when the log split.