& DRINK M Back in the game
“TO MY mind, this is a perfect mid-week supper, so when you have a bit of spare time, make and freeze a batch, ready for a rainy day,” says Tom. ICHELIN-STARRED chef Tom Kitchin is on a mission to get us all eating more game. His new book, Meat & Game, is stuffed with tantalising recipes for partridge, grouse and pigeon, as well as rabbit and venison, that should inspire us to go wild and try new things in the kitchen.
Tom, 40, who runs The Kitchin restaurant and The Scran & Scallie pub in Edinburgh, says game isn’t too tricky to cook, even though it will probably impress your guests.
“I’ve tried to make it as accessible as possible, so the person reading the book says, ‘Do you know? I can do that.’
“And how much of a show-off that is... You have a dinner party and you knock up a bit of rabbit, a bit of wild buck, and they’re like, ‘Wow!’
“I think about my mum too – every year, someone would give her a brace of pheasants and, more often than not, they’ll end up in the freezer.
“In the back of her mind, she’s like, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do something with pheasant’ and she’s got one recipe, pheasant casserole, which is nice, you know, but there are so many different things she could do with that pheasant.”
So there’s recipes for potted pheasant, Asian poached pheasant, pheasant cock-aleekie, barbecue pheasant and even pheasant and partridge scotch eggs.
Tom believes game has had a bit of a tough time – seen as simply the preserve of those who go on shooting parties, but wants to reclaim it as meat for everyone. He’s pleased that game is starting to be recognised as a healthier meat alternative too.
“People are starting to understand that eating venison is accessible, it’s so lean, it’s so tasty, it’s not too expensive... It’s about getting out there and getting it.”
Tom has four boys, Kasper, nine, Axel, seven, and identical twins Lachlan and Logan, who’ve just turned four, with his Swedish wife Michaela, who is also his business partner.
“They’re real foodies. They’ve been brought up in the restaurant, especially the first one – my wife was answering the phone and taking bookings rocking the Maxi-Cosi (car seat) at her feet. That’s the way it was back then.”
He takes the boys foraging and says: “I love to get the kids to understand that when something comes into season, that’s when we’re going to eat it.
“So when it’s the start of the asparagus season, ‘Right guys, come on, we’re going to have asparagus tonight’, or the first strawberries. They understand seasonality a little bit.”
Tom admits balancing work and home life is a “juggling act”, but says his secret is not living in London.
“I lived in London for many years, I see my friends who live there and think to myself, ‘No thanks’. I’m really happy here in Edinburgh, it’s like a manageable-size city.”
There’s no “crazy romantic story” to how Tom became a chef – he got a job washing dishes in a local pub at 14 for pocket money and “just loved the adrenaline of the kitchen”.
“I didn’t really like school, I wasn’t very good at it, so I wanted out as quickly as possible,” he says.
“Back then, cooking wasn’t rock and roll like it is now, like when you said to your mum and dad you want to leave school at 16 and be a chef, it really wasn’t what they were planning I guess. I’m just amazed that they supported me.
“I met really good people, but I worked incredibly hard, I don’t know where I got this gritty determination to keep going... I just wanted to work for the best chefs in the world, which obviously was quite gruelling, but I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today if it wasn’t for that.”
Tom Kitchin’s Meat & Game, left, by Tom Kitchin, photography by Marc Millar, is published in hardback by Absolute Press, priced £26.