The Hunter Chef Cookbook: Hunt, Fish, and Forage in Over 100 Recipes

by Michael Hunter, Jody Shapiro (Photographer)

I recognized that Michael Hunter knows what he is talking about the minute I opened this book. Hunter is the kind of guy--and the kind of work--that you get when you combine passion, creativity, inventiveness, and elbow grease. This book makes me hungry, and Michael Hunter makes me proud to be a hunter and angler.
--Steven Rinella, outdoorsman, host of the TV series and podcast MeatEater, and author The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook

Well-known hunter and respected wild-game chef, Michael Hunter, grew up in the great outdoors. Inspired by the endless bounty of the land, hunting, fishing, foraging, and cooking is a way of life for Hunter.

Celebrating the resources of the wild, The Hunter Chef Cookbook features a collection of over 100 recipes and butchery guides, and stunning food and landscape photography. The book includes recipes for cooking big game, from moose and bison, to white tail deer and wild boar. Common small game features include wild turkey, duck, wild goose, ruffed grouse, as well as rabbit and squirrel. Fresh-water and salt-water fish recipes feature pickerel, wild salmon, rainbow trout, prawns, scallops, and more. A seasoned forager, Hunter offers an array of savoury and sweet recipes, incorporating wild ingredients, everything from mushrooms and leeks to sumac and berries.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Canada

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 6, 2020

Reviews

[Jeanette Graves · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of amazing knowledge! It’s the perfect combination of recipes for a full meal, including desserts. Then there’s the most beautiful photography of those meals.
What I really enjoyed about this book is that Michael included stories about his personal hunting experiences, his foraging adventures, his childhood memories of all the “firsts” he had in the forest. It was outstanding!
I typically don’t count cookbooks in my annual book goal for reading but decided to for this one because I truthfully read every single page!

[Karen Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a cookbook club pick, so I was able to try several dishes. The grouse on a pancake with apple and maple syrup seemed like a weird idea, but it was actually quite tasty. Campfire pickerel was as good as you'd expect, and the batter was nice and light. Sugar pie tasted as expected. (SWEET!) One lady made the Wild Boar Cavetelli with juniper berries, but with regular pork. It had an unusual, peppery taste. Everyone enjoyed it. Lastly, we had the moose lasagna, which tasted like a very regular lasagna with lean beef.
This book has beautiful photography. My teenager, who is into hunting and fishing, read it and enjoyed the stories. I changed my rating to 5 stars because I think it's a valuable cookbook for those who are interested in eating from the land.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. I am not a hunter, but do like to eat meat. My husband does hunt some (mainly quail) so I was interested to see the recipes included in this book and especially if there were any for quail. The presentation of the book was easy to follow, the recipes very interesting and I found there were several that I will be trying soon. The instructions on cleaning and preparing the game was very good and a novice should be able to follow the instructions without any problem. The photography was outstanding. Overall a good recipe book.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for Vegans.

I really enjoyed the depth into how diverse you can be with game meats, and it was done in such an excellent way with backstories and delicious recipes. The photos were also a really great visual breakdown.

I find it incredible too that this was the old way of how we ate. Hunting and butchering the animals that were caught and cleaning them and cooking them to feed our families and villages. Many of the dishes have been made up to be fine dining and elegant, not likely the food our ancestors ate, but still taking that same way of living and eating into the modern way we eat game now.

[Daniel Haas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael’s restaurant Antler in Toronto serves some of the best game in North America, and his recipes featured in the book are accessible for all levels of home cooking. If you’re able to visit the restaurant, you can experience five stars firsthand worthy of a culinary bucket list, but if not, his book deserves a place in everyone’s kitchen who cooks wild game. I’ve been eating game my whole life, and his boar cavatelli, bear curry, venison patty and venison tartare were four of the tastiest dishes I’ve ever had for each type of meat.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent wild game cookbook. I've made one of the venison recipes and read the rest of the book. The butchery section is one of the best I've seen in print form, and hopefully I'll get the chance to try it next month.

As a cookbook, the photography is really well done and the writing is great too.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is well written and beautifully photographed. Michael Hunter is based in Ontario and it shows through, particularly in the ingredients used in his foraging recipes, and therefore the application for someone who lives in a different location, such as myself in the Plains, is somewhat limited. However, I did enjoy reading through it regardless.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this ultimate foraging cook book. beautiful pictures and great discussions about sustainability and a wide range of species. One day if i live in the country... although there are lots of pidgeons and squirells in the city...

[Darryl Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I snuck this book into my wife's purchase when Christmas Shopping... (bad elf move!)

I owe her a great meal from one of the many suggestions here...

- review to be update more following