Fair Game

Sue Quinn talks to chef director James Golding about his passion for shooting and eating game and finds out why local game will always be on The Pig’s menu

- Sue Quinn

“LOOK at me,” says James Golding, chef director of The Pig hotel group, stretching out his beautifully inked arms. “I’m covered in tattoos. If game bird shooting was a classist sport they wouldn’t let me on their land.”

Chatting over lunch in a quiet corner of the restaurant at The Pig in Brockenhurst at the start of the game season, Golding is making a point. Game bird shooting is no longer the preserve of the posh and privileged, he believes. And he should know; Golding is one of a rising number of culinary luminaries, including the likes of Sat Baines, Tom Kerridge and Claude Bosi, to take up the sport. “People think it’s an exclusive thing but it’s just not like that any more,” Golding says. With flowing hair, tattoos and a sizeable piercing through one ear lobe, it’s true he’s not exactly your stereotypical country squire. “It’s not elitist any more and it’s almost become the sport for chefs. Not only do we want to know where our food comes from, but we also want to be able to shoot it and prepare it and eat it.”