Hunt your meal | The Press

The sun is barely rising in the Ashuapmushuan reserve, 45 minutes south of Chibougamau. We get out of the vehicle, then we go towards the weapons, stored in the trunk. It’s too late to turn back. Chief Jean-Philippe Leclerc hands me a small Soviet-made flip-action rifle into which only one cartridge can be inserted. If I miss my target, too bad for me, I have to reload. To relieve stress, I tell myself that it’s probably fairer for the animal.

To be honest, I’ve never had a taste for hunting. And I had never used a gun. But I still got my learner’s permit, which allows you once in your life to go with an experienced hunter, without having your own certificate – which you obtain at the end of proper training. . But being able to taste the meat hunted the same day and prepared by a chef convinced me. After all, Jean-Philippe Leclerc’s recipes can be found in the brand new book Hooké – Adventures and wild cuisineby Fred Campbell.

“At the time, for me, hunting was not barbaric, but I didn’t understand, it didn’t make sense,” admits the man who has already worked in the kitchens of La Tanière and L’Initiale, in Quebec. “But over the years working in restaurants, I have had the taste to take into account the traceability of the animal protein that I consume, to know where it comes from, in what conditions it is raised,” explains the chef.

But for Jean-Philippe Leclerc, the interest in going to the forest is not limited only to the fact that he can harvest his own meat there. “I was born in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, I grew up on the banks of the Saint-Laurent River, it was quite my playground, close to nature,” he recalls. My interest in the outdoors really started from there. And that’s also where I discovered picking plants thanks to a teacher who was doing replacement work, I must have been in third year. »

Myrique balsam, dune pepper, our hunter-gatherer guide took advantage of our walk to draw our attention to the fruits of the forest, an enriching activity in itself, even if we came back empty-handed.

And small game hunting does just that, and that’s part of why it’s the most accessible type of hunting. “Small game still remains my favorite hunt after moose because it’s a hunt where you can walk around, you don’t have to worry about your smells, making noise, you can chat, explains the man who today earns his living as a cook in a daycare center. I go there with the children, I introduced them to it when they were very young. And when you walk, you get some fresh air, you are contemplative; you’ve seen how many times we’ve said how beautiful it is here! You go hiking and do your grocery shopping in the forest! »

Quest for self-sufficiency

Jean-Philippe Leclerc has been hunting for more than 12 years now, so much so that he rarely buys meat at the grocery store for his family. He is obviously aware that the supply method he has chosen is not for everyone and that it would not be viable on a large scale in any case. “I live with a reasonable meat consumption, so when I have a large game like a moose, I can last a year, a year and a half with half a carcass,” he tells us. Through it all, I also have grouse, white-tailed deer and a few fish. And it’s certain that I also eat a lot of vegetables. »

“Also, it really makes us think about the privilege we have to be able to eat this, much more than when we buy it at the grocery store or in a restaurant, you don’t think about your product,” continues the chef aptly. So I have even less desire to waste, you know. »

Jean-Philippe keeps almost everything from the animals he hunts. He candied the gizzards and hearts of the grouse and spruce grouse that we hunted and the carcasses were used as broth for a future recipe.

“You thank the animal on your plate, you highlight it,” he insists. This is why I think that hunters are fundamentally nature lovers, lovers of animal welfare, and we must try to demystify that. There are so many prejudices, we always talk about hunting for the wrong reasons, when despicable things like poaching happen. »

And when we consume meat that we have hunted, there is always a story that comes with it, Jean-Philippe Leclerc tells us. I actually had a lot to talk about around the table after cooking the grouse brought back from my first hunt. My gut tells me it might not be the last.