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Mushrooms add a sharp flavor and a sweet, chewy texture to all sorts of delicious dishes, from tortillas and curry to side dishes. You can add them to a portion of pasta or cook a delicious mushroom sauce. You can also sauté, fry or grill mushrooms as simple but delicious addition. 
Mushrooms are a subset of Basidiomycota from the fungi family. The word mushroom originated from the Gallo-Roman Mussiro, which evolved into Mussereroun in Middle English. Mushrooms are often classified as vegetables, although most of us know that they are actually fungi. The most consumed species today is Agaricus bisporus, which makes up about 40% of the mushrooms grown in the world.
Early cultivation France was a leader in formal mushroom cultivation. Some stories say that Louis XIV was the first mushroom producer. During this period, mushrooms were cultivated in special caves near Paris, which were destined for this unique agricultural form.
In France, English gardeners found that mushrooms are very easy to grow, requiring little work, investment and space. Mushroom cultivation began to gain popularity in England thanks to new experiments on generation and advertising in magazines and newspapers.
In the late 1800s, mushroom production started in the United States, where curious gardeners from the East tried their luck to cultivate this unknown new crop. At the end of the 19th century, Americans were cooking mushrooms in their own kitchens. Back then, mushrooms were mainly reserved for use in spices.
Nowadays, mushrooms are produced commercially all over Asia and around the world, from the Paris caves to the tables of millions of Indians and Americans, fresh mushrooms have grown from darkness to light, and their intensity continues to increase.
