'For hunting, but against bad hunters'

Chef Theus de Kok was in the kitchen of De Echoput for over 40 years. Of course, he can cook anything, but his speciality is game. About hunting, hunting and preparing game, he tells WineLife. By Magda van der Rijst

'When I was 23, I joined De Echoput and immediately had to start working with game. Logical, because the restaurant is in the middle of Crown Estate Het Loo in the Veluwe, the most beautiful game area in the Netherlands. When I arrived in 1973, the hunters delivered what they had shot to our kitchen. In those days, we took the boars, fallow deer and red deer - really big mongrels weighing up to 150 kilos - out of their jackets and cleaned them ourselves. Nowadays, it goes through poulterers with whom we have excellent agreements. The lines have changed, but at De Echoput we still work exclusively with game from our own backyard. That remains special.'

Game = 100% free-range meat
'Game is the best meat you can think of. Especially here from The Crown Estate. The animals have space, the estate covers more than 10,000 hectares, and there is plenty of food in nature. Now that's good scavenging. More natural and better meat does not exist. Especially if it is well shot. I am for game, for hunting, but against bad hunters. A good hunter shoots the animal in one go, in its heart. That is best for the animal and also for the quality of the meat. There are hunters who have to take several shots, leaving bullets everywhere and bleeding. As a cook, you are not happy with that. Even worse is when they hit an animal so badly that it flees tipsy. Very sad because then he suffers unnecessarily and becomes hugely stressed. Bad for him, but also for the structure of the meat.'

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