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8
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2016
H
unting is quite often a matter of
DNA, a deeply ingrained practice in
families far and wide. Such is the case
with noted chef and restaurateur John Besh.
In the first chapter of his book
Cooking
From the Heart
, Besh celebrates what he
calls “Lessons of the Hunt.” He begins by
describing a magical, cold, beautiful gray
day on steep inclines of the Belchen, the
fourth highest mountain in the German
Black Forest. On this particular day, he was
hunting with fellow chef and friend Karl-
Josef Fuchs. Besh writes:
“I feel just as I did at seven or eight-year-
old, following my father and grandfather
through Louisiana’s low-lying cypress
swamps and the jagged red clay hills
planted in pine, chasing after an elusive
white tail deer. I was reared to pursue the
art of hunting with bows, arrows, shotguns
and rifles. The meat my family ate during
hunting season was wild.”
Today, the art of the hunt continues for Besh
across the familiar landscape of his native
Louisiana, and extending to a hunting lodge
he owns nestled in the rolling hills of northern
Alabama country, which has become the site
of many a memorable gathering of fellow
chefs, a busman’s holiday of sorts. On these
occasions they hunt, cook, swap stories and
share the convivial fellowship of their craft
and the bounty of the land and sea.
Not sure if one exists, but if there were a guest
Good Chefs
Hunting
by
Mary Beth Romig
the
Holiday
issue