Like many who grew up outside of the city, chef Kai Leitner of Lily Mae’s in Gastown fondly remembers the taste of wild game. For Leitner, and many Canadians like him, dinner often came not from the grocery store, but from the ubiquitous deep freezer jammed with butchered moose and deer.
Leitner is paying tribute to the flavours of the BC back country with a menu consisting of wild game, set to launch next month for the fall season. Lily Mae’s is also hosting a special four-course dinner from Sept. 26 to Oct. 11 in honour of the harvest moon, featuring wild elk, boar, and venison.
“This food is a part of BC’s heritage, and I think we’re losing touch with that,” says Leitner.
Wild game is still a rarity on Vancouver menus, not only because it is hard to come by, but also because of the public’s misconceptions about it’s flavour – something Leitner hopes to change. While some may dismiss wild meat as “game-y”, Leitner says proper technique complements the flavours, instead of forcing them to be something they aren’t.
“You can’t substitute moose for beef and expect it to taste the same,” says Leitner. “You have to approach it as a totally different dish.”
With menu items such as wild venison tartare, and boar and elk pot-au-feu, Leitner hopes to make wild game converts of Vancouver restaurant-goers.
Leitner has sourced the game from producers in the Interior, and all of it is government-inspected.
“These aren’t animals we’ve gone out and hunted ourselves,” he says. “You can sell wild game with a licence as long as it’s government inspected, but it gets snatched up so quick in the small towns, it never gets to Vancouver.”
