Mark Gilchrist is the head chef and director of ‘Game For Everything’. He specialises in cooking game and only uses wild meat and seasonal produce to make his signature game pies and cater for events and dinner parties. He’s not afraid to experiment either and will confidently add an unusual twist, safe in the knowledge that ‘it just works’.
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Recycling misconception as fact, eventually misconception becomes fact
January 18, 2009
The greatest problem that I am faced with in trying to get game cooking, shooting and my lifestyle anywhere is changing the opinion of the masses. This problem of trying to bring about change is not just difficult with those who have no interest in game or are apathetic about it. The major problem comes from those who are in the business or life style who can’t change their small minds in light of the facts.
To structure my point I wish to bring you a few clear examples of this kind of stupidity. My first example was when two years ago I went to the CLA (country landowners association) and I wanted to put a restaurant in to their game fair. They claim that the CLA game fair is the biggest and the best, they would. I had a commercial sponsor for this venture, all the paper work and was prepared to work round any problem.
At the first meeting we had to discuss this venture I was a bit surprised to hear that the CLA could not take up my offer as “it would compete with the catering contract.” I can’t express how disappointed I am that people selling burgers come before this type of forward thinking multi beneficial idea. Further to this I resent any organisation that claims to represent the countryside, which also has this kind of pathetic lack of foresight.
Of all the branches of cooking I don’t think that any is as poorly understood as game. I have a daily battle to explain to people that what think they know about game is not right. The reality is for too many people think that something that works nine times out of ten is good enough. If it works nine times out of ten then you cannot possibly understand the process you are subjecting your meat to, by virtue of the fact you have errors in your cooking process.
What is even more difficult to change, is the endemic culture of people who have done some thing badly for a long time believe that their way is best. Personally I see forty years of doing something badly is not in fact a case for competence, it is however a fantastic bank of evidence to demonstrate the contrary.
At the root of this problem I can see the worst trait of all, a lack of ability to change. It is this lack of ability to change, coupled with a culture of premature congratulation that is so wide spread in country side organisations that has got game cooking, shooting and the countryside in the state it is in.
Personally I relish change, some of the greatest steps forward that my cooking has taken has been by realise that my methods are not 100% effective and the rules need to be changed. It is change that motivates me, and in the face of the challenge of trying to ring some reason in to game cooking I consider what is evidently a great challenge, to be a great opportunity.
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2 Responses to “Recycling misconception as fact, eventually misconception becomes fact”
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Hello,
We would like to invite you as a guest blogger on our US Foodservice Professional blogsite.
best wishes,
kenneth
kennith,
i would love to
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mark