Pellegrini, Shaw Headline Wild Game Cooking Lineup at National Pheasant Fest 2013
Pheasants Forever 01.14.13
Conservation and cuisine collide at Pheasants Forever’s 30th anniversary celebration
Wild game chefs Georgia Pellegrini and Hank Shaw will be featured speakers on the Wild Game Cooking Stage at Pheasants Forever’s upcoming National Pheasant Fest & Quail Classic presented by Cabela’s. The event comes to the Minneapolis Convention Center February 15, 16 and 17th. The cooking portion of the show is presented by Gander Mountain.
Pellegrini and Shaw burst onto the cooking scene in recent years with innovative perspectives, radically changing the way many people think about the environment and where their food comes from. Pellegrini’s adventures were chronicled in her latest book Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time, while Shaw is the author of the award-winning wild foods website Hunter Angler Gardener Cook and the book Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast.
“Conservation and cuisine intersect each day on our dinner plates, so it’s important to build a connection between wildlife habitat conservation and what we eat,” says Bob St. Pierre, Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Marketing, “Food is also what brings us together, the center of every celebration, and we can’t think of a better occasion than National Pheasant Fest and Pheasants Forever’s 30th anniversary to celebrate the fruits of our habitat efforts.”
Georgia Pellegrini – presenting Saturday at 11AM, 1PM & 4PM
“My passion for good food, for simple food, began at an early age, on a boulder by the side of a creek as I caught my trout for breakfast. I grew up on the same land my great-grandfather owned and worked…This connection to the land and the deep satisfaction one gets from manual labor stayed with me…I decided it was time to really get at the heart of where our food comes from and head to the source—Mother Nature. I bought a shotgun and set my sites on the cutting edge of culinary creativity intent on pushing the boundaries of American gastronomy.”
Hank Shaw – presenting Friday at 6PM, Saturday at 10AM & 2PM and Sunday at 11AM & 1PM
“I write. I fish. I dig earth, forage, live for food and kill wild animals. I drink bourbon, Barolo or Budweiser with equal relish and wish I lived by the sea. Or on a mountain. Or in the middle of the Great Plains, with nothing but shortgrass prairie as far as the eye can see. I spend my days thinking about new ways to cook and eat anything that walks, flies, swims, crawls, skitters, jumps – or grows. I am the omnivore who has solved his dilemma,” Shaw says, “My hope is that the website and my book will help open new vistas in the world of hunting, foraging and fishing both to newcomers and to those who’ve spent decades in the fields, forests, marshes and oceans of this great country.”
Lenny McNab – presenting Friday at 4PM & 7PM, Saturday at 12PM & 3PM and Sunday at 12 PM & 2PM
Also presenting on the Wild Game Cooking Stage is Lenny McNab, the Executive Chef at Kessler Canyon, a world-class resort. This celebrated cowboy cook and talented entertainer is renowned for his delicious farm to table recipes and exuberant personality.
Pheasants Forever launched Quail Forever in August of 2005 to address the continuing loss of habitat suitable for quail and the subsequent quail population decline. Bobwhite population losses over the last 25 years range from 60 to 90 percent across the country. The reason for the quail population plunge is simple - massive losses of habitat suitable for quail. There are five major factors leading to the losses of quail habitat; intensified farming and forestry practices, succession of grassland ecosystems to forests, overwhelming presence of exotic grasses like fescue that choke out wildlife, and urban sprawl.
