Gourmet Forager Tips on Wild Game and Greens in the Kitchen

Hank Shaw

Wild-foods expert Hank Shaw comes to Washington College April 7 to give a chef’s perspective on hunted and foraged ingredients. His talk, “Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast,” is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7, in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall.

The event is free and open to the public, thanks to sponsorship by the College’s Center for Environment & Society (CES), Anthropology Club, Ducks Unlimited Club, and William James Forum.

Shaw, who earlier worked as a commercial fisherman and a line cook, has published two cookbooks — Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast and Duck, Duck, Goose: Recipes and Techniques for Ducks and Geese, both Wild and Domestic — and has written for periodicals that include Field & Stream and Gastronomica. (Copies of the two cookbooks will be available for purchase after the talk.) His blog, Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook, was named Best Food Blog by the James Beard Foundation in 2013 and won the Bert Greene Award for Best Food Blog from the International Association of Culinary Professionals in both 2010 and 2011.

Shaw says he has been a fisher and forager since childhood and took up hunting as an adult.  All of the meat in his household is caught or hunted, and most of the produce is foraged. His talk will focus on the preparation of wild foods, taking the raw ingredients to a sophisticated level in both taste and appearance. In particular, he will talk about cooking local game, including parts such as gizzards and hearts that are typically under-utilized, and about interpreting traditional Chesapeake Bay-area dishes.

The Center for Environment & Society at Washington College is an advocate for the Chesapeake Bay and a source of interdisciplinary academic programs that promote the integration of environmental issues and social values.