Chefs Gone Wild

What happens when chefs are taken out of their comfort zones and thrust into the wild? The result is interesting dishes with wild animals and foraged plants.it creates a new spin on the farm to table ideology.It's more of wilderness to mouth kind of idea. Will it make for a better cook? Possibly.It's a way of thinking on one's feet ,literally.

Julia Moskin explored this concept in an article in today's New York Times Dining section.Chefs from around the world meet in Hardeeville South Carolina, in areas very different from the controlled  and civilized atmospheres of their restaurants. It is a Scandanavian concept, first being done in Denmark,Called Cook It Raw , it has nothing to do with the raw food movement, Instead it let chefs not only hunt , kill and butcher wild game but also forage wild plants and gourds that also figure largely in the later dinners. They can chase after deer or  even alligators one day and look for wild mushrooms the next.

Does this make for a better chef?It may make for one that's highly creative.One chef, created a delicate dish out of a deer's heart, an animal he recently shot. Another group used a strain of Carolina Gold rice,a fluffy variety  that hasn't been tried since the 1920's.They were taught how to harvest, from threshing to pounding and polishing.. They're also made to use low tech methods such as cooking over an open fire and butchering anything they've caught. Some have even cut up alligators in the glaring lights of a truck.

WIll more chefs go on these ventures ? Probably,Cooking in the raw teaches them new skills as well as introduces them to new ingredients.It  could make for some wild recipes inthe world's most civilized and sophisticated eateries.