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Food Food & Drink

Chef Michael Hunter’s Wild Affair with foraged and indigenous foods

A WILD AFFAIR at Sassafraz (100 Cumberland) as part of U-Feast. March 10, 2016. Tickets: $150 (with a $50 tax receipt), available here, with some funds going to Second Harvest. See listing.


Historic Canadiana’s cuisine is being revived by Antler Bar’s Chef Michael Hunter, who departed his former life as a corporate chef to embrace his hunting and foraging roots.

On March 10, in collaboration with U-Feast and Sassafraz’s Chef Geoff Webb, you can indulge in indigenous flavours for yourself at a fundraising event entitled A Wild Affair. Try an incredibly stacked menu featuring items like Jamaican venison patties, spice ash-crusted rack of deer and foraged, white spruce-scented ricotta cheese cake. And the event supports a great cause: with a fundraising goal of $10,000, money will go to Second Harvest to supply healthy meals to those in need.

We caught up with The Hunter Chef to find out more about wild foods, hunting and – gulp! – eating squirrel.

You are a Torontonian but grew up on a farm in Caledon and fox-hunted. How has this influenced your approach to the Wild Affair’s menu?

Growing up in the country, I have cultivated a passion for local food and I’m naturally able to find ways to use ingredients around me. And spending a lot of time in the woods, I’ve learned a lot about mushrooms and plants – and discovering ways to eat and cook with them.  A lot of my inspiration comes from that.

Are you self-taught in hunting and foraging?

I’ve been foraging with chefs that I worked growing up, but yeah, I didn’t go to school for it, so I guess you could say I’m self-taught. But one of the chefs I learned from was Dave McRae – he owns a bakery called the Grain Revolution in Guelph.

What is your favourite wild animal to make a meal out of?

I really enjoy venison – I hunt for deer the most often.

How would you describe your style of cuisine?

Well, items in our restaurant – for instance the snacks – are fun and playful. I wanted to highlight how multicultural Toronto is. My main style is really rustic. I like local cuisine and I want to be a part of Canadian Cuisine. I like injecting my contribution with wild and local foods.

What is your signature dish?

The rack of deer which will also be featured in the U-Feast event. It comes on a ragu of venison shoulder with parsnip purée.

Are you hunting for this deer yourself? There are some regulatory issues regarding serving wild meat in restaurants.

The deer I hunt on my own is served in my home. And the deer we use in the restaurant is farm-raised.

Are Torontonians ready for your style of cooking at Antler? What about newbies – what do you recommend they try?

Yes! For instance we do a rabbit pasta, which is a very approachable dish. A lot of people say it tastes like chicken and the flavour is very mild. But yes, we’ve had great success with the deer and rabbit dishes. Our diners are adventurous and they have a desire to try something new. It was not what I was expecting, but we’re really excited about that – being welcomed into the community.

You’ve said that you’re concerned about where our food culture is going and you want inspire others to take a natural approach to how we feed our families. Can you elaborate on this?  

Yes, I was talking about processed foods and factory farming. The fish farming culture is harmful (to us and our ecosystems). And I really hope people can learn and be inspired to start, for instance, a garden at home, or use farmer’s markets to buy local, organic and healthy foods for their families. Most important, I think people need to be aware of where their food is coming from and get away from processed products.

You’d been working in corporate kitchens for years. Why did you decide to focus on the hunting and foraging style of food?

I think creatively, I was really bored. Working for a corporate company was a great experience because I gained a lot of business acumen while working in a corporate setting, but creatively, I was getting really restless. That is when I started to work on a cookbook on hunting and foraging (which is still in production). It was also the aspect of having to go through several levels of management just to make seasonal changes to menus – it became increasingly frustrating – because I wanted to share my passion and get back to my roots of cooking.

LIGHTNING ROUND

What is your favourite kitchen tool?

I try to do everything by hand, like making pasta. And if not that, a Vitamix for smoothies.

If you were not a chef, what would be your dream job or occupation?

I really like photography. All of the photos in the restaurant and on our website are taken by me. Definitely, it would be something artistic – or outdoor-related – I really like snowboarding.

If you’re not eating in your restaurant, where’s a great spot in Toronto you would go? And what would you order?

Bar Raval and Sassafraz. Or Chinatown to find some good pho or dim sum. At Sassafraz, their brunch is great, or I usually go for their burger. At Bar Raval, I’d get some house charcuterie and anchovies.

Weirdest thing you’ve made or eaten?

Squirrel ragu. I also used squirrel for a play on Coq au Vin. I used red wine and bacon…we were freaked out while trying it at first… but it was really good. It tasted a bit like chicken or rabbit, actually.

Err… not Toronto squirrel though, right?

 …Caledon squirrel.

Find out more about how to get a ticket for U-Feast’s Wild Affair event here.

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