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In January we had the second of our external Game seminars here at the
college. These seminars have been very popular over the years. They
started back in 2004 addressing the need for students and chefs alike
to be better educated on all aspects of game including its identification,
preparation and its use. Since that first demonstration here at Westminster
college we have educated over 3000 students and chefs on the use of
game and dispelled some of the myths surrounding it. We are innovative in
the way we use game on our menus here at the college and probably use
more now during the season than ever before.
We want our young chefs to be in touch with what is a very special, free
range and sustainable commodity. We want them to understand the field
to fork concept of our food. I am a strong believer that a chef should not just
see food prepared and have no concept of the living thing it once was. By
learning about game and understanding it, they have more respect for the
product. This also enables them to tell its story on menus and relay this to
their customers.
In the first half of the seminar we covered all the small game species. This
included over 11 species of game birds, 2 hare species, and rabbits. We
looked at their background habits, then preparation and uses. This was
then followed by a 3 course lunch that included a starter of Mixed Smoked
Game bird Terrine with Pistachios and Apricots, main course of Roast Loin
of Fallow Deer with a Stalkers pulled Venison Pie all followed by Chocolate
Bavarois with Brownie, Hazelnuts and Alfajores biscuit.
In the second part of the Lecture I presented the 6 deer species found in
the UK. We covered all the differences between them and then looked at
harvest, shot placement, bleeding, gralloching (gutting a deer) and hanging.
We then had a practical demonstration on how to hand skin and then
butcher a deer carcase. Everyone that attends finds this part of the lecture
the most interesting, it demonstrates how cost effective it is to buy whole
carcases and break them down. The cost impactions and benefits of buying
whole carcasses as opposed to individual joints is there for everyone to
see. When the skill set is learned, it is something that is achievable for most
establishments. Individual joints on a carcass are expensive, but when
buying a whole carcass, you will find that one or two joints of the animal will
pay for the whole carcass, leaving you with a healthy profit.
With this in mind, I worked with Angel Refrigeration to develop the
“Huntsman Game larder”, a fridge for hanging whole carcasses. These are
as good for the stalker as they are for the chef. The stalker will cool and
hang his carcass in the larder, with its skin, on to allow it to relax before the
skinning commences. The chef can hang 1, up to a maximum of 4 skinned
carcases within the larder depending on their size. He, or she, can then use
them at their leisure as these larders retain the meat cold and in perfect
condition for over a week. During the development process, we worked out
that, after putting 4 carcasses through the larder, the profit from this meat
paid for the larder itself and thereafter left a heathy profit.
Over the coming weeks the game season will finish. This year I am looking
forward to it as it will signal the end of my work on my next book “Feathers
The Game Larder”. Photographer Steve Lee and I have worked hard over
the last 4 years to bring you a book that tells the story of game birds in the
UK with some help from a few well known chef friends and some of my ex-
students. This book has been hard work just like the first book “Venison The
Game Larder” which took us 8 years to complete albeit in a different way as
game birds are more complex and there are more species to cover. I think
we have done a good job of it. Look out for it in July when it will be launched
at the Game Fair at Ragley Hall.Jose L Souto Senior Chef Lecturer Westminster Kingsway Collegetraining: WestMiNster kiNgsWaY college