14 DAY TRIAL // Starting this fall, some select restaurants in Quebec are going to add wild-game dishes to their menus. Wild squirrel, beaver, muskrat and deer will be served in some top establishments in the province as part of a pilot program announced by officials.
Quebec's wildlife minister, Yves-Francois Blanchet, said that chefs have been asking for this change for years, and confirmed that ten restaurants, including Normand Laprise’s Toqué!, Martin Picard’s Au Pied de Cochon and David McMillan's Joe Beef, would be part of the new project that allows them to serve wild game meats.
The minister added that the purpose of this pilot program was to boost tourism and attract international meat lovers. However, the program will develop under the close supervision of wildlife and agriculture officials, who will make sure that no species is endangered and that the dishes are appropriate for human consumption.
This project will give chefs the opportunity to show off Quebec’s unique gastronomy and culture.
“There is an opportunity for our culture as well as for our practices of hunting, trapping … there’s a window for something very interesting for Quebec,” Blanchet said, according to CBC News.
Until now, restaurants that made dishes based on local recipes had to buy their meat from farms. However, now the government has decided to permit them to serve meals made from wild game during the autumn hunting season.
“It’s our native meat. We work hard to use local cheese, we work hard to use local products, local vegetables, local fish, and … when it came down to meat products, generally everything was farm-raised,” said David McMillan, one of the chefs involved in the experiment.
Quebec's top restaurants have long promoted local and sustainable food, including wild game meats, which are renowned for their savory taste and tenderness, so the new program is certainly a welcome move for their chefs.
The sale of wild meat has been illegal for a long time in Quebec, mainly to discourage poaching. That's why the new pilot project will have strict limitations regarding the purchasing of game. However, chefs seem to be aware of that and they agree that the program must have rigorous rules.
“We need it to be as hard as possible. I want to be inspected. I want to fill out forms. I want it to be special. I want my staff to understand when we get a deer in, it’s almost a religious experience. We’re going to pay respect. It’s my province’s food,” said chef McMillan.