Hunting: Heritage of Hunting (and Eating) Game

Chef John Besh, Image: Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times

Chef John Besh, Image: Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times



This is Passport to Texas

It’s deer season in North and South Texas, and hunters are headed to the field with the hope of bringing healthy meat home for the table. Chef John Besh, who has a PBS Cooking Series, My New Orleans, grew up in hunting and fishing, activities he says helped him develop respect for life.

13— You see something running or swimming one moment, and then the next moment it’s in the frying pan. You don’t waste as much of it. You don’t look at it as lightly as you do as meat wrapped in cellophane on the grocery shelf.

If you like knowing where your food comes from, Chef Besh says you do when you hunt and fish.

12— If you’re a carnivore, it’s the purest form—to take it from the field to the plate. It’s something that I do on a personal level quite a bit. I have four sons, and they’re growing up with the tradition as well.

Chef Besh apprenticed in southern Germany, where each fall the restaurant served wild game brought in by local hunters and farmers, and inspected and approved by the health department.

16—I so loved that, and so appreciated that that added just yet another layer of understanding of how to treat game and the importance of this tradition. So you were field to plate before field to plate was cool. I don’t know if it’s cool yet [laughter].

Sign up for the Hunt Texas e-newsletter on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, and learn about hunting for and preparing wild game.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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