Game from the shoot to plates

Jason Moore, group chef at Provenance Inns

It’s the bounty of a successful shooting season and its popularity is increasing at a chain of pubs where chefs are trying new approaches to cooking game to tempt dinners.

The conditions are right for experimentation in North Yorkshire where the Mount St John Sporting shoot in the village of Felixkirk near Thirsk provides a fresh supply of wild game birds for the kitchen pots at Provenance Inns pubs - including at the nearby Carpenters Arms; voted last year as Yorkshire’s favourite pub.

Shoot season starts, of course, on the Glorious Twelfth (of August) with grouse, followed by partridge season in September and pheasant in October. On the following 1 February the season ends.

Mount St John Sporting has been operating commercially over 6,000 acres since 2009. Shoot manager Trevor Bailey, 56, is an old hand on the moors having started by ‘beating’ when he was a 16-year-old.

Reflecting on last season’s success, Trevor says the popularity of shooting is remarkably high.

“I would say, if we had double the number of shoots we could have the same number of guns again. There is a waiting list of 30 to 40 parties. It’s the guys at the top of the tree with disposable income who come to shoot.

“And I think it’s the day itself that makes shooting here so popular; the way we look after them, and we have challenging birds - the pheasants fly high and fast - it’s a very sought after experience.