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What is the Festival?
The 2009 Gamebird Food Festival is a unique opportunity for New Zealand hunters and their friends to dine on gourmet dishes created by some of country’s most renowned chefs,using their own gamebird catch. The festival runs concurrent with the gamebird hunting season, and festival restaurants create gamebird menus based on the hunting list.
There are over 20 festival restaurants spread across New Zealand. Many of these have been short listed or won Cuisine magazine awards and all are renowned for their innovation and quality.
This year, you can access information about the festival through this dedicated website. You will find festival restaurant profiles, gamebird recipes and we will be updating the website with news and events throughout the festival.
Now in its 4th year, the Gamebird Food Festival is an initiative of Fish & Game NZ to promote responsible, licensed hunting and the value of gamebirds as a natural and desirable food.
How does it work?Each restaurant in the festival has created special gamebird dishes, based on several of the gamebirds on the hunting list. Restaurants take around 15% off the price of each dish for the provision of the gamebird meat.
To make a reservation, hunters can phone their chosen festival restaurant to discuss dining options and arrangements for delivering their dressed gamebirds at least 48 hours prior to dining.
I'm a hunter, what's in it for me?This is your chance to experience dining in style on your gamebird catch. Is a chance to celebrate your hunting skills and share a few stories with your friends and family while feasting on your own gamebirds. You will have the added advantage of seeing what the chefs do with this delicious meat, and you may even take some ideas, and recipes, home for future use.
I want to try wild game but I'm not a hunter.Restaurants are not allowed, by law, to purchase or sell wild game. Hopefully, you have some friends who are hunters. Then you can organise for a group of you to dine at a festival restaurant, with your hunter friends supplying the birds. Many of the festival restaurants will put together a special banquet menu and have a private room area for your dining party. If you don’t have any hunter friends, some of the festival restaurants are offering their special gamebird dishes using farmed birds, such as farmed duck, pheasant and quail. Contact the festival restaurant in your area with your enquiry.
How do I make a reservation?Just call your chosen festival restaurant and let them know that you want to dine on your gamebirds. The restaurant will discuss your dining options with you. You may get put through the chef who will ask you some questions about the type and number of birds, let you know how you need to prepare your gamebirds. and when to drop them in to the restaurant.
How is Fish & Game New Zealand involved?The Gamebird Food Festival is an initiative of Fish & Game New Zealand to promote responsible, licensed hunting and the value of gamebirds as a natural and desirable food.
‘Fish and Game New Zealand’ is the collective brand name of the New Zealand Fish and Game Council and 12 regional Fish and Game Councils established in 1990 to represent the interests of anglers and hunters, and provides co-ordination of the management, enhancement, and maintenance of sports fish and game (Section 26B of the Conservation Act 1987). Fish and Game councils are the statutory managers of sports fish and game bird resources and their sustainable recreational use by anglers and hunters New Zealand wide, except in the Chatham Islands and for fishing in the Lake Taupo catchment where it is managed by the Department of Conservation.
How can I get more information?Check out the website using the tags to search. You can also send us an email by clicking on the Contact Us link on the top menu bar.
