Photo courtesy Hank Shaw
If it’s wild, weird and out of the ordinary, chances are Hank Shaw has eaten it. I sat down with the forager, hunter, chef and James Beard Award-winning author ahead of his visit to Richmond this Saturday, Dec. 1, for an event at Mise en Place cooking school presented in partnership with Belmont Butchery. Best known for his philosophy of promoting honest food and focusing on meats and vegetables that don’t typically make their way to the dinner plate, Shaw has demystified the world of wild game and embraces eating outside the box.
Richmond magazine: When did you first get introduced to hunting and fishing?
Hank Shaw: I’ve been fishing and picking wild plants and mushrooms since I was a tiny little kid. I didn’t pick up hunting until after I left Richmond; I lived here from 1997 to 2002. Fishing and foraging have always been a part of my family, and I really picked it up when I was a newspaper reporter in Minnesota.
RM: Why is hunting and foraging your own food so satisfying?
Shaw: The attraction is there's an unmistakable sense of contentment and satisfaction when you sit down to a meal you had to work for. Even if you’re a gardener, that tomato tastes way better than a tomato you buy at the store, and when you pursue wild food it’s the same thing.
RM: Growing up, did you live on a farm, or were you surrounded by a lot of land?
Shaw: I grew up in the suburbs. If you live in New Jersey, it has a strong fishing culture, and almost everybody on my block fished in every way shape and form. What a lot of people don’t know is the saltwater fishery in New Jersey is world-class. I caught my first tuna at 10 years old. When we went on vacation, we would go to Block Island near Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard — in the 1970s before all the chi-chi — and spend whole days picking blueberries or wild grapes or digging clams. We didn’t have to do it to survive, but it made our lives better.
RM: Did you ever feel guilty or think about the fact that you’re killing an animal?
Shaw: I killed thousands of fish, and I’ve never felt much about that, just 'cause some of my earliest memories are fishing. I didn’t hunt until I was an adult, and the first thing I ever successfully hunted was a squirrel in Minnesota. I was 30 years old, and I was in the snow in the woods. The first feeling I had was elation that I had succeeded in what I set out to do, and I’d had a lot of unsuccessful hunts before. I walked up on the squirrel, picked it up, and it was warm, and that kind of brought it all to a head in an instance. It’s a heavy deal, and you stop and think, that was an animal that had individuality and likes and dislikes and life before it met me. You can become heartless if you stop thinking about that, and I never stop thinking about the individuality the animals we pursue possess. That is why I never call it a sport; I call it a pursuit, because it’s way too serious to call it a sport. I’m not weeping every time I hunt, but I acknowledge its worth, and that translates into my cooking. If you understand that deer died for your dinner, you’re not going to leave it for the coyotes. I hunt to feed myself and the people I love. The short version is, absolutely yes, I think it about all the time.
RM: What would you say to people who are uneasy about eating wild game or going out of their comfort zone?
Shaw: A lot of these animals we hunt have analogs or domesticated versions of themselves in the supermarket. You can get out of the journey of pork, beef, chicken and salmon and start by exploring other meats and tastes and flavors, because I guarantee if you go to a decent supermarket in town you will see duck and quail, and you may even see goose and pheasant. It’s there, and if you’re interested in eating these things you don’t have to pick up a gun.
RM: Do you have a favorite type of wild game to cook and eat?
Shaw: I would say grouse in general, and blue grouse specifically.
RM: Have you hunted something before and not liked it?
Shaw: Oh, yeah. Muskrat is challenging, and the meat tastes like how the algae at the bottom of a pond smells. No bueno. I can make it taste good, but I have to use all my crazy chef powers. Also, merganser, a fish-eating duck. My advice to everybody: Don’t shoot merganser; they are gross. It’s disgusting.
During the Dec. 1 event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mise en Place, Shaw will discuss and sign his newest book, "Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail: Upland Birds and Small Game From Field to Feast," and demonstrate poultry cooking techniques. Tanya Cauthen, owner of Belmont Butchery, and Chef Christine Wansleben of Mise en Place will prepare appetizers inspired by Shaw’s book. Tickets are $45 and include a signed copy of the book.
