place with people turning up in boats and on bikes, so we
had this massive feast, using local produce. I also cooked
moose kebabs in the forest last autumn, whittling the kebab
sticks with my hunting knives.
TP: What is on your hunting bucket list?
CAB: It has to be the homeland of the type of cooking I do,
and that is Argentina, especially the Patagonia region. There
is a Welsh community there, and it will be really fitting to
rekindle the Welsh connection with the Argentines, doing the
fantastic Asado barbeques, and twist it up a bit with my
Welsh influence.
Also, the big moose in Alaska, the caribou, as it is the cold
mountains that really appeal to me... not forgetting the tahr,
wild pigs and red deer of New Zealand. I love the adventure
and challenges of hunts such as these!
TP: Back to your cooking. How do you learn and develop as
a cook?
CAB: I guess, if it is your hobby, you research it, reading
books or watching videos, so I have just picked things up,
paying a special interest to it.
TP: How did you start in professional cooking?
CAB: Many years ago, I visited a CLA Game Fair at Ragley
Hall with a shooting mate. We were disappointed with the
quality of game cooking, and thought we could do better, so
the following year we made it into the CLA. We took out a
loan to purchase a trailer and kitted it out, but we had no
clue about event catering or quantities to order.
We made venison burgers with red wine and juniper
berries, caramelised onions and chutney. Everything was
homemade, even using a local bakery for the buns. We went
to farmers markets, boot fairs and local shows, but the
Game Fair was hard work and not viable due to the costs. It
was the horse races that worked well, but I gave it up as
costs were increasing, and the unpredictability of events and
the British weather made the risks too high.
TP: And Game and Flames?
CAB: When I moved to Sussex, I started thinking about
teaching people and that’s how Game and Flames started,
visiting local private schools. I wanted to start a business
that involved me not borrowing money, organically growing,
so I started my small game workshops here in these woods,
cooking rabbits, pigeons, pheasants and squirrels. I have
also run pop-up events in Norway, Ireland, and Scotland.
TP: Hang on a mo, you taught people how to eat a squirrel?
CAB: I cooked a squirrel burrito for a hunting magazine after
shooting three in a wood the night before the photo shoot. I
slow-cooked the meat with tomatoes, chilli, cumin, garlic,
pepper, paprika and some chicken stock. After two hours, I
peeled the meat off the bones and added it back to the
sauce, reduced it down, and put it into a wrap with rice,
guacamole, sour cream and cheese.
TP: Back to your workshops, I see we have larger animals
here to cook today?
CAB: ‘Deer in a day’ is a very popular workshop I run. This
morning, I had eight lads that were on a stag weekend, and I
taught them how to skin a deer, prepare the meat, and cook
on an open fire. Locally, fallow are most plentiful to shoot,
but as it is out of season, I had to pull in a few favours to
find two roe bucks.TP: What about the weddings?
CAB: I do open-fire catering for weddings and functions. We
have fire pits in or on the ground, with crosses or Argentinian
asados that support whole lamb or venison, marinated with
red wine, garlic and rosemary, among other concoctions. It is
a very primal style of cooking, just meat on a fire, not
forgetting trays of potatoes, vegetables and fruit.
We also serve salads, herby dressings, canapés cooked
on fires, basically everything around an open fire.INTERVIEW WITH CAI AP BRYN
http://www.rifleshootermagazine.co.uk 93»
“I COOKED MOOSE KEBABS IN THE FOREST LAST AUTUMN,
WHITTLING THE KEBAB STICKS WITH MY HUNTING KNIVES”
BELOW: Through
Game and Flames,
Cai passes on
his skills and
passion to others