British Game Week is Here – We Celebrate the Wonderful Variety of the Best of British Game

British game is unique in the world. Whether it’s our climate, countryside or our sheer enjoyment of eating game there is nothing like British game.

This year, as never before, has seen a big rise in the word deer starting to occur on menus as chefs and suppliers have been promoting the varied nature of deer meat – coming as it does from the four different types of deer that make up the generic term: venison.

The Chefs’ Forum recently caught-up with Great British Menu winner Tommy Heaney of Heaneys Restaurant in Cardiff to film him creating a delicious venison tartare with pickled kohlrabi and tartare dressing for Game Meat Wales…it truly is one of the most magical time for the game sector.

To find out how to recreate this stunning dish and many more, cooked by top chefs, visit The Great Game Guide recipe page HERE.

Now you’re as likely to see roe, fallow and red deer on a menu with sika coming up fast in the rankings. But with deer being available year-round that leaves the game “season” to really shine at this time of year.

November is a perfect time to celebrate game birds. The grouse, that started off the season back in August are now older, wiser and much more difficult to shoot and are, consequently, less available.

Partridge has been around since the beginning of September with pheasant joining the party in October. But, by November all game birds have had the opportunity to eat everything that’s wild in the landscape from berries and other woodland goodies that make up their varied diet.

This, in turn, means that the flavour of game changes around this time along with more muscular birds that have had the chance to grow and lose some of their fat.

Now is also the time to start thinking about Mallard, Teal and Widgeon – the truly wild birds that are not driven but shot on wetlands and coastal shorelines. These birds are lean and packed with goodness and flavour though some chefs find it difficult to reconcile the often-faint fishy notes that come from the wild diet of shoreline ingredients.

But that’s what makes British game so fantastic. Every species has a different make-up and requires a different style of cooking. Yet game is incredibly versatile. It takes strong flavours well but stands up on its own.

This is the week to celebrate everything game and we look forward to seeing how you put game on your menu and what your favourite recipes were this year.