Don’t feed the wolves, unless they’re on a poster.
An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse
I recently received an invitation to a seven-course meal at the Endangered Wolf Center, featuring a menu of locally foraged foods. The name of the event: “Eat What the Wolves Eat.” I pondered what that might be. Would everything be raw and weird? I read on.
As it turned out, the fundraising dinner was prepared by Chef Rob Connoley, a St. Louisan and James Beard Foundation 2014 semifinalist, who specializes in foraged and hunted ingredients. The dinner held at the Wolf Center in Eureka included 30 different ingredients gathered from the woods of Missouri. It wasn’t exactly what wolves eat—unless they’re true gourmets—but the dishes reflected the ingredients found within their food chain.
Chef Connoley is committed to foraging all of his ingredients himself so he can guarantee they are collected ethically and safely. What our ancestors did for survival, Connoley does to re-focus our food choices.
Further adding to the wonder of the evening, Connoley and his assistant prepared the unique meal for 24 people in a facility without a kitchen. They used two hot plates and a couple of skillets. The event was truly an amazing display of culinary artistry and skill. Below are photos of most of the dishes we were served and a description of the major ingredients.
First course: Rhubarb poppers and salted rhubarb sauce, goat cheese mousse, pickled cattail stalk.
Chef Rob Connoley explains the next course and its ingredients. His cookbook entitled, Acorns and Cattails: A Modern Foraging Cookbook of Forest, Farm and Field was published in 2016.
The chef’s knives and implements. Hmm. . . do you suppose I’d be a better cook if I had those to work with?
Also attending was Daisy, a fennec fox, living at the Center and shown here being held by Tracy Rein, Head Animal Keeper.
Seeded crackers with Apache red grass and amaranth, Chicken of the Woods pate, cattail pollen, wild onion blossom
Nettle fettuccine in duck confit, mustard and onion sauce, maitake salt, pickled yucca, wild mustard infused oil. (Apologies for the poor photo, which does not do justice to this fine pasta dish.)
Wood Ear mushroom, trumpet mushroom honey, redbud caper, redbud jelly, pork terrine, kombu beans, lichen rye bread.
Venison tenderloin, apricot/grapefruit mole, roast vegetables from farmers’ market, pickled onion bulbs. This was the most tender piece of venison I’ve ever eaten; it could be cut with a fork. The final course was a hibiscus sorbet with violet sorrel sugar and sumac macaron.
I pose with Robin, (far right) and my niece, Mary Ann Amsinger, who is the Director of Finance and Retail at the Endangered Wolf Center.
But Was It Good?
Now, I was willing to cut the chef some slack in the preparation of this meal. If he could just make these plant foods mildly edible, forget flavor and looks. After all, he was using ingredients that Wilma Flintstone would have gathered and trying to prepare them to please today’s palate.
But there was no need for concern. Despite the unrecognizable names of many of the ingredients, there was nothing gross or unpleasant. I was completely amazed by the preparation, flavor and downright goodness of the woodland foods. If I hadn’t know what was in each dish (the printed menu told all), I would never had guessed it was anything but a trendy, well-prepared meal in an upscale restaurant.
Chef Connoley plans pop up dinners in the area this summer and hopes to open a restaurant next year. An event similar to the one at the Wolf Center will be held on August 13 at Shaw Nature Reserve. Not only do you get to eat like the wolves, you’re able to forage with the chef before dinner.
Endangered Wolf Center, 6750 Tyson Valley Road, Eureka, MO, Virginia “Ginny” Busch, executive director. Tour hours and special events here.
