Giving it the bird at the Savoy

This review was first published in October 2000

Five years ago, living in an attic flat in Willesden Green and surviving on our first measly London salaries of £11,000pa, my cousin and I would often cook pheasant for dinner. Obviously our friends thought this ridiculous. But it was cheap. At least, reduced in Waitrose, Finchley Road, on a Saturday afternoon, it cost no more than a couple of economy chicken breasts. We shoved it in the oven in a casserole dish with some undrinkable red wine and it came out tasting delicious.

People are often afraid of game. Afraid of the delicate cage of bones they can feel just beneath the flesh of smaller birds. Afraid, because their mother never cooked it, that they won't know when it's ready or what it ought to taste like. Afraid, most of all, that game is only to be eaten by plus-four wearing bilious gentlemen who charge out with their shotguns on the Glorious Twelfth, whatever that is.

But venison, grouse, pheasant and the like have always been eaten as often by the poacher as by the lord of the manor. It's one of the few remaining foods to be strictly seasonal. And rich, meaty game is a just reward for the wade through pavements full of yellowy leaves and clouds of drizzle suspended in the black evening as you head home wondering when it came to be so dark so early. This week, The Savoy Grill began serving its seasonal game menu and it will continue to do so until November 4.

I was lucky enough to preview it and can say, truly, that it is delicious. Simon Scott, the Savoy chef who devised it, has been careful to include recipes with a lighter, more modern edge than the traditional roasts and casseroles. Because, yes, game can get a bit heavy across two courses. So there is grouse risotto (intensely flavoured, drizzled with a buttery hollandaise sauce); venison ravioli; duck rillettes (heaven on a plate); partridge stuffed with mushroom and truffle mousse - all served in generous portions.

In recent years, venison and rillettes have consistently proved to be the most popular dishes o n t h e Savoy's annual game menu, no doubt partly because they are a cinch to attack on the plate (no messy deboning). As an introduction to game (or indeed to The Savoy Grill), you could not do better than try this menu, though dinner does not come cheap - £8 to £11.50 for starters, £18 to £24 for mains.

If you go, try drinking the house claret. If not, and you are minded to cook at home, then Simon Scott suggests that venison is the most fail-safe and least daunting option. The easiest way to prepare it is to marinade it overnight in wines and spices and cook it in a casserole - 'that way you can't overcook it'.

Though supermarkets do stock it, game is best bought from a butcher's. Most people get their knickers in a twist about terms that don't crop up when birds and beasts are shrink-wrapped in plastic on supermarket shelves. Pheasants, grouse and partridge need to be 'hung' for a few days while the carcass begins to decompose and the flavour of the meat intensifies (the ideal length of time varies according to the type of bird, and how 'high' you like it to smell). 'I go by the time it's been hung for more than by the smell,' says Scott. 'Fourteen days is good for pheasant. I wouldn't go over three weeks.'

Where can you go wrong? Just consult a decent recipe book (Robert Carrier is the master), get down to the butcher (or the supermarket, if you must), and if you can't light a fire in the grate then put a bottle of bordeaux on the radiator to warm and imagine it instead.