A company grows these (and other mushrooms) in a warehouse here in Zurich to supply restaurants and grocery stores, which is probably one of the reasons these mushrooms are now found in the wild.
I "hunt" (in German you use the verb "collect/gather") mushrooms in the forests around Zurich and I haven't seen these yet. They also don't appear in my Pilzfürher app specific to Switzerland. But I have heard they are here. From pictures I've seen of them in the wild I might dismiss them from a distance because I could mix them up with two common yellow mushrooms here - one poisonous.
"Mushroom hunting" is a fairly common phrase in English, too. It appears to have the top-level title for the page about that activity, on Wikipedia, even (mushroom foraging, mushroom picking, and mushrooming are all given as alternative terms)
Plus it's the title of a song on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, so it has that going for it.
The German term is "Pilze sammeln" which literally translates to: collect mushrooms.
There are many dialects of the German language - where I'm from, we would use "Schwammerl suchen" ("Schwammerl" as another term for "Pilz(e)"). This literally translates to: searching for mushrooms.
"sammeln" can have multiple translations. "Collect" would be more like "einsammeln". In the context of "Pilze sammeln", you'd use "forage". You forage for food.
Morels are find as long as you cook them and don't eat look-alikes. The look alikes that I'm aware of (false morels and mule tails) don't really even look like morels.
A friend of mine went to a local mushroom picking course and among things they mentioned that morels are difficult to cook from fresh, because of the gastro problems. Apparently, the advice was to dry them before using in recipes.
They aren't 'difficult' to cook. They are dangerous to eat if uncooked (and thus undercooked).
While true morels themselves can be dangerous while uncooked, there are similar looking species that are both less and more dangerous.
Species of Gyromitra or "false morels" like Verpa Bohemica will commonly all be called "morels": both as an intentional cultural colloquialism or simple misidentification.
Depending on which hemisphere you live in, some Gyromitra species may be more dangerous than true morels. They can also be more dense and harder to cook thoroughly.
Most mushroom species will cause an upset stomach if undercooked. Drying is an effective way of reducing both dangerous and uncomfortable compounds. It's suggested for morels out of an abundance of caution, but it is not a necessary step.
(Note that not all compounds are destroyed! "Magic mushrooms" are famously traded dry for example!)
The advise to add an additional preparation step also increases the chance someone will notice the wrong species hiding in their ingredients. Undesirable species can have overlapping habitats and climates so its not uncommon for a careless or ignorant forager to pick the wrong thing.
Despite many people such as you and I yelling at random hippies and hillbillies online, they continue to call everything "morels". Reread my comment again: it is true that people colloquially misname dangerous species. I cannot help this. I can only point this fact out.
Morels contain several volatile compounds which cause gastric distress. (Forgive me for not looking it up at the moment, but one of them is/was a compenent of rocket fuel, which teenage me loved.) They have to be thoroughly cooked to burn those off. Or else dried.
Specifically for soup - which is, arguably, their best use - most people won't saute morels long enough before adding liquid, so it's always best to use dried for that. Otherwise, standard, boring, dry-sautéed + butter until tender works great, and has never given me a hint of upset.
The instructor of your friend's mushroom course may have been giving maximally-cautious advice, rather than trying to communicate nuance to the general public. That's often a wise choice. :-)
PS. If you're at all interested in foraging mushrooms, buy a copy of All the Rain Promises and More, by David Aurora. (If you're elsewhere than North America, buy a local guide, too, but still get ARPM.) Aside from the mushroom content it's wonderfully entertaining.
That advice makes no sense but it is way easier to cook with dried mushrooms. Maybe that's where the folk wisdom came from. When you us mushrooms your goal is to remove as much mushroom juice as possible and replace it with fats oils etc. When you start off dried it's easier
It does make sense; the poisons in morels (and many other "edible" mushrooms) are highly volatile. Heating them in a pan drives off the harmful compounds; heating them more gently in a large volume of liquid captures the compounds.
There's a variety of mushroom that has killed in the US, but is reportedly sold in Scandinavian markets. My theory is that Scandinavian recipes specify pan-frying or drying them first, and the unlike USian skipped this step.
One secret is that the more you do it, the more you see mushrooms everywhere. You develop an aptitude for noticing fungus absolutely everywhere, and you'll wonder how you ever missed it.
Another is that you need to get a feel for the conditions your local edible species like. Mushrooms will appear most of the year where I live, but the worthwhile hunting times fall into fairly narrow bands in spring and fall, though prolonged rains and cooler weather in summer will rapidly generate huge stands of some species too. You kind of get a feel for it over time.
Finally, you need a good guide, ideally human at first and then a credible book that's ideally specific to your region to some degree. As an example, North America is a huge area to make a book for! They exist though, and they're still useful if you can't find anything more specific. British Columbia helpfully narrows it down, then Vancouver Island even further. Sometimes you'll find books specific to regions within your state like that, and that's the best in my experience. Look for a local mycology club and they'll have the best literature and guides on lock. They'll also probably welcome you out for some group hunting and guiding. These people are almost always extremely helpful, friendly, knowledgeable, and excited to have new members.
Like with fishing, making it about getting outside and enjoying nature rather than requiring each outing to be a huge success helps. At first you might get skunked pretty frequently and have no idea why. Over time you'll get a feel for things, find reliable stands of species you love, and get better at spotting what you're looking for.
>As an example, North America is a huge area to make a book for!
I think AI/LLM with RAG is the ideal solution for this mushroom hunting/foraging.
With mobile phone fine-tuning multi-modal app capability and NTN satellite connection to the cloud, you're loaded for the bear, err mushrooms.
Check this video on Golden Chanterelle mushrooms hunting in Santa Barbara, Southern California where one lb can cost around USD20-30. The guys managed to gathered around 80lb for the trip or about USD1600 minimum if sold [1].
[1] Mushroom Hunting Catch and Cook (80lbs Found!):
I "hunt" (in German you use the verb "collect/gather") mushrooms in the forests around Zurich and I haven't seen these yet. They also don't appear in my Pilzfürher app specific to Switzerland. But I have heard they are here. From pictures I've seen of them in the wild I might dismiss them from a distance because I could mix them up with two common yellow mushrooms here - one poisonous.
(I'm going out to search for morels this weekend)