As Canadians sought new ways to keep warm this winter, game migrated big-time to restaurant menus. From rabbit consommé at neighbourhood bistros to roasted quail at haute eateries, chefs ventured beyond the barn.
And while variety was plentiful, one meat emerged as a choice cut: elk -- a low-fat, stick-to-the-ribs protein that was a diet staple for many pioneers but has now taken on a much more glamorous flavour.
In Toronto, chef Mark Thuet's special Vintner-Hunter menu in November featured date-and-sage-crusted Alberta elk medallion. And members of the Spoke Club dined on roast rack of elk.
"Ten years ago, you couldn't get rid of elk meat," says Ken Canavan, head chef at Cilantro Restaurant in Calgary. "Nobody wanted to buy it. Everybody was scared of it. Once a few stories started coming out in the media about how healthy elk is, then it started selling like crazy. Now lots of other restaurants around here put it on their menus."
This winter, Canavan's elk dishes included marinated short ribs served with an ancho chili sauce, and a strip-loin entree. Even in Alberta beef country, one out of six customers in his 75-seat dining room will order the elk strip loin. Canavan also serves up a lunch hamburger made from elk, bison and caribou meat, weighing in at a hefty eight ounces, that sells for $15. "I hand-make my patties and I sell tons," he says.
Cilantro is owned by Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts, which since 1996 has raised its own herd of 400 elk southwest of Calgary.
Ranched elk, which is what all restaurants serve, are raised in a natural environment, without growth hormones or unnatural stress. Low in fat and cholesterol, elk venison is high in protein and iron, and has a light, yet rich flavour.
Of course, not every restaurant is fortunate enough to have its own ranch. Luc Jean, head chef of La Vielle Gare, a Winnipeg institution, orders his precut elk from Stonewood Farms, operated by breeders Merv and Lou Farmer, north of Winnipeg. "I get our elk delivered directly from the farm, so my cost is not much more than beef."
Elk is a regular item on his menu. "It sells really well," Jean says. "We only offer it as a nightly feature and some nights we sell 20 servings in a room of 70 diners."
One of Jean's popular specials is strip loin or tenderloin marinated with maple syrup, gin and juniper berries. Then he adds a special sauce. "I like to use saskatoon berries because it's regional."
La Vielle Gare's chefs use a slow-cooking technique so that the meat is not overcooked (this is important because elk is so lean); they won't serve it past medium.
Every three weeks, Jason Cox, head chef at Toronto's Opus Restaurant, is visited by local elk breeders. John and Judy Rietkerk's small farm near Guelph supplies his Yorkville restaurant with whole elk sides that are carved into strip loins, tenderloins, racks and other lesser cuts.
"We use every single part of that elk side," says Mario Amaro, who has owned the 70-seat Opus with his brother Tony for 14 years. "We make sausages and we even use the bones for soup stock."
The restaurant only features the meat specials during fall and winter, as diners tend to prefer heavier meals in cool weather, but the dawning of spring doesn't have to mean the end of elk. It cooks up beautifully on the barbecue, and is becoming more available at specialty butchers.
Opus's elk supplier, for instance, culls 40 of their 120 animals annually, which end up as whole sides mostly for the Toronto market. They're scooped up by retailers such as Butchers By Nature and Whitehouse Meats in the St. Lawrence Market.
Amaro says it's easy to win people over with elk. While most of his diners are familiar with the meat, "some American diners aren't, but we explain it to them. They love it."