Pigeon, hare, partridge and grouse – chefs relish wild game season and the challenge of cooking it right
- It’s game season, and eager chefs the world over are adding wild meat to their menus – in soups, as pâté, cooked sous-vide, in sausages, even as chips
- In Hong Kong, chef Guillaume Galliot is inspired by cooking hare, while for Cary Docherty game reminds diners ‘something has died in order to be consumed’
Late summer until the turn of the year broadly marks out game season, a period when the flesh of wild birds and animals makes its way into the hands of eager chefs.
Shot by hunters in strictly controlled numbers to ensure populations are managed, the volume of game is tiny compared to meat from farmed animals, making it something of a rarity.
Chefs in Hong Kong relish the arrival of wild game shot in France and the UK and the brief window of opportunity to showcase dishes and techniques that are often complicated and labour-intensive.
Guillaume Galliot, chef de cuisine at the three-Michelin-star restaurant Caprice at the Four Seasons Hong Kong hotel in Central, comes from the Loire Valley in France, a region renowned for its wild game. His dishes include a wild boar terrine at Caprice Bar, and grouse or venison with blackberries, but it’s wild hare which inspires him the most.
“The wild hare we use at Caprice largely come from the region of Sologne, an hour north of the city of Tours [in the Loire Valley]. They were the former hunting forests for the French royal family. Quotas are strictly respected and you have to call the authorities to verify them. It’s sustainable, counted and tagged. These hares eat real grass, flowers and mushrooms, so they’re full of natural wild flavour.”