Meet the mum who's cooking up a storm with Very Good Venison

GunsOnPegs is proud to sponsor the 'Best Influencer' category at the Eat Game Awards, as it so often highlights the  dedicated individuals who are working away, often without reward, to promote game to a wider audience.

The 2023 winner, Anna Rogers, who was crowned at a glittering awards dinner in London in March, is no different, and exemplifies the impact that someone with a mission can have. We caught up with her to find out more about her project, Very Good Venison, on Facebook and Instagram.

Very Good Venison

GunsOnPegs:For those who haven’t yet encountered it, tell us what Very Good Venison is all about?

Anna Rogers: I started the account in February of 2019. As a family we eat venison almost daily, as my husband is a deerstalker on an estate. While we are starting to get venison used in restaurants and on TV, I felt that there was an opportunity for it to be used in everyday meals, to try to normalise the use of venison. People might order it on a night out but the thought of cooking it at home could be quite daunting. I wanted to show that you can feed it to your family and you don’t have to cook fancy things with it, it can just be chili or bolognese.

I’m not really encouraging people to eat more meat, but to eat less and appreciate it more.

GunsOnPegs: What does it mean to you and your project to have won the award for Best Game Influencer?

Anna: It was a huge surprise, but one I was very grateful for. Being a mum and having a part time job, it was quite strange for something to be all about me for a change! I feel really proud that my efforts have amounted to something and it was really special to be part of the event and to realise that my little voice was being heard. 

We’re going to use the prize money (£1,000) to start a website to kind of tie what I do on Facebook and Instagram together and make it feel a bit more professional. I'd like it to be a place where people can find a few recipes, a bit of info about UK deer species, and maybe in the future sell a bit of merchandise, but ultimately to reach more people.

I also want to use the platform that the win has given me to encourage others to do the same as me and put themselves out there, get themselves nominated for an Eat Game Award, because promoting game needs to be a collective effort.

Beginnings

GunsOnPegs: What’s your background in game?

Anna: I was brought up on a farm on the Isle of Wight and left home at 16 to go Sparsholt College to study horses, where I met my husband Chris. I had never eaten venison before I met him, and had hardly even seen a deer before I started living on the mainland. I was probably in my 20s when I started going out stalking with Chris and saw him shoot a deer. 

GunsOnPegs: Did you have any hesitation or misgivings about trying wild game for the first time?

Anna:  Because it was my husband’s job, and because I come from a farming background, I was perhaps not as hesitant about eating game as others might have been. I remember the first time I saw Chris shoot a deer I did feel a bit of a sense of guilt, but once it was back in the larder I was able to see it as food again. 

Through cooking with venison daily, I realised that everything you can make with farmed meat you can do with wild game, and it is on our doorstep!

Impact

GunsOnPegs: You’re very modest about the impact that you’ve had, but to build a following of several thousand as you have done is no small feat!

Anna: I think I would say that it is very easy to compare yourself to other accounts and I would say that everyone who follows me is a ‘quality’ follower and they really interact with me. The biggest thing that I have loved is when people get in touch to say that they have tried one of my recipes.

GunsOnPegs: It is quite a bold thing to do, to put yourself out there, have you had much pushback from people who object to wild game?

Anna: What has surprised me is that while I have had a little bit of negativity towards what I do, it hasn’t been too bad; I do sort of try to be quite considered about how I write and the photos that I use, to avoid glamourising it too much. I have also tried to express in a few posts that people who like to hunt and source their own meat are actually coming at their diet in a very similar way to vegans and vegetarians in that they are both very careful about what they put into their bodies, but I also sometimes try to express how important deer management is even if you're not a meat eater.

GunsOnPegs: Do you have a favourite deer species to cook with?

Anna: I think Muntjac, because of its size, it makes a great option for a family of four, you get very little wastage. Then Chinese Water Deer, because it carries a bit more fat so it is great for burgers etc.

GunsOnPegs: Who is your game hero?

Anna: I suppose my husband, really, because I would never have started cooking with game without him. But I also think Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall inspires me, when it comes to thinking about where our food comes from, and how he speaks about wild food in general.

GunsOnPegs: You have a two kids, what’s their favourite game dish?

Anna: I have a son (15) and a daughter (11) - they love venison chili, steaks and they also love partridge or pheasant goujons or nuggets. And I recently made some Chinese-style venison pancakes which they loved - they love anything that’s a bit like a takeaway!

GunsOnPegs: Do you have any advice for anyone looking to introduce game into their family’s diet, especially if there’s a bit of resistance?

Anna: I think so far as kids go, you’re probably not going to get the same sort of resistance, so simply switching game in for farmed meat in some dish that they already like generally works, so if they like chicken nuggets, do pheasant goujons. I wouldn’t try to introduce something like a venison bolognese or something like that if they don't like 'conventional' bolognese.  With adults it can be a bit harder!

GunsOnPegs: Finally, if you were marooned on a desert island and could only cook one game dish for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Anna: There’s just so many! It would be so hard to choose. It would have to be venison, and I’m going to go with a venison and chorizo burger!