QUOTED: Reds chef Michael Hunter on why Toronto chefs should be able to cook off the land

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“It would be amazing for me to go hunt and share that with the public. That’s where food comes from. It shouldn’t be fed GMO corn. It’s the way nature intended.”

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—Reds chef Michael Hunter, who is, coincidentally, really into hunting. He recently told Eater Toronto that he’s starting a Twitter petition to get Toronto chefs behind a movement to relax laws that currently make it illegal to serve wild game in Ontario. (If you’ve ever eaten elk or pheasant at a Toronto restaurant, it was definitely raised on a farm. Same with “wild” boar.)

A few weeks ago, Quebec green-lighted a pilot program that will let 10 of the province’s restaurants serve wild beasts, like muskrat and squirrel. (The squirrel dish pictured above comes courtesy of Au Pied de Cochon chef Martin Picard, one of the 10 Quebec chefs given permission to go wild.) Hunter, who’ll be self-publishing his cookbook The Hunting Chef in the fall, is optimistic that something similar could work in Ontario. “It gave me hope,” he told Eater.