The game-changers

Richard Gladwin loves squirrel. “If you haven’t tried it, you should,” he says, declaring it delicious spatchcocked and barbecued but even better skinned, cured, confit and used as a filling for a delicate tortellini poached with wild mushrooms, cobnuts and nettle pesto.

We might think of it as traditional fare but game and wild food – in all its guises – is having a moment. From Skye to Soho, it is being hailed by a new generation of foodies and restaurateurs, while game’s established champions now have even more reason to shout about its merits.

Gladwin, with his two brothers, has six London-based restaurants, each celebrating the English countryside, with “local and wild” as their tagline. The brothers grew up on a West Sussex farm and thrive on being part of that rural community. “Gathering anything from the land has always been a way of life for us,” says Gladwin, who as a youngster tried a Roald Dahl-esque trick of scattering booze-soaked raisins on the floor of woodland