Craft Guild of Chefs Consultant, Lee Maycock, took a class of 20 third year catering students and second year French exchange students at Canterbury College on a game workshop, sponsored by Game-to-Eat.
Lee gave a detailed presentation on the various types of British wild game, teaching about seasonality, traceability, hanging and storage. The students also had an opportunity to see and handle a selection of primary cuts in both ready prepared form and in fur and feather - cuts included venison, pheasant, partridge, snipe, wood pigeon and rabbit. Following the theory session, Lee then took the class through butchery techniques of the birds and venison, while the students had a go at plucking the pigeon and snipe.
The afternoon saw a cookery demonstration of three dishes using the butchered game – wood pigeon breast on beetroot and black pudding; venison fillet with rhubarb, berries and butternut squash; and bacon wrapped pheasant breast on creamed cabbage.
After tasting the dishes, students were then asked to prepare a menu of their own design using the knowledge and skills from the morning lecture. The menus were then served to 18 covers in the college restaurant to paying members of the public. The dishes created, were as follows:
• Venison with Turned Carrots and Chocolate Paint
• Pheasant with Smoked Bacon, Savoy Cabbage and Spiced Apple Chutney
• Roasted Partridge with Celeriac Puree
Catering & Hospitality Lecturer, Anthony, told Game-to-Eat the 3rd year students had experienced game briefly as part of their portfolio - rabbit, pheasant and venison, but never had an in depth briefing on the subject. He said: “Many students will take away a lot from this experience and remember it, whichever direction they take in the industry.”
The students enjoyed getting hands on during the lecture, and were able to apply the skills they had learnt for the menu writing, cooking and presentation. Overall, many would continue to think of cooking game in the future.
Dominic Bowlt, Section Manager, Catering & Hospitality said: “This intense game workshop was invaluable. It gave the students a good balance of theory and practical, and inspired them to be creative and confident with game.” |
