Australians urged to eat invasive species — including feral cats
Inspired by subversive artist Kirsha Kaechele’s recipe book, ABC is screening a six-part series on devouring the animals and plants that threaten Australia’s unique biodiversity.
Curiosity may not have actually killed the cat but for Vince Trim it certainly played a part in turning the cat into consomme.
When the artist Kirsha Kaechele staged a surreal dinner at the famously subversive Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania, she invited Trim, the gallery’s chef, to do the catering.
The New Zealander created a dinner based on Kaechele’s 544-page recipe book, Eat The Problem. On the menu were dishes made from many of Australia’s invasive species, including a blackbird and starling ragout.
The star of the show, though, was the soup. Trim produced a steaming hot bowl of feral cat consomme in which possum and hare tortellini floated beneath an eyeless pigeon’s head.
The ingredients were drawn from animals brought to the continent by humans, posing a significant threat to its biodiversity. Feral cats, which number at least six million, are a particular problem and have severely depleted many native species, including birds.
There are also more than a million wild camels roaming the outback, the descendants of those imported to penetrate remote inland areas in the 19th century, while foxes and carp were imported by settlers for sport. “In some cases you should and could eat them into eradication,” Kaechele said.
Kaechele’s book has inspired ABC, the national broadcaster, to screen Eat The Invaders, a controversial and at times gruesome six-part series next year. It looks at killing and devouring even the ugliest of the invaders, such as poisonous cane toads.
“It was more of an experiment that we did for ourselves,” Trim told The Times, adding that cats were “a really big part of the conversation” about eating invasive animals. Although the series shows Aboriginal people hunting and feasting on feral cats, Trim, who appears in the series, is clearly not sold on this alternative for urban diners.
“We have to be able to say no to some things,” he said. “We’ve got to ask the question, go through the process and then come out with a clear yes or no. But there’s always a maybe in there.”
Among those who tried Trim’s feral cat dish was the reporter Gavin Butler from Vice magazine. He said: “It is impossible to slurp up a liquid that you know is cat broth without tasting the cat. That kind of warm, cloying, spare-room-at-your-nan’s-house scent just seeps in and dominates the palate, if only subconsciously.”
Series presenter Tony Armstrong, who is of Aboriginal heritage, said he found a deep connection with those who have hunted feral cats for generations. “Eating them the way we did, understanding culturally what it meant, that was beautiful to me.”
Cane toads, which have spread in their millions since being brought in to control beetles, feature in another gruesome episode in the culinary series, as do camels, carp and deer.
The Times
More Coverage
Poorer nations poised to drive global economic growth
The global economy is on track to double in size in nominal terms over the next 15 years, with growth fuelled by poorer nations catching up with richer ones, according to forecasters.
Can a bank make carbon offsetting a growth industry?
Many firms have supported tree-planting projects as a way of burnishing green credentials, usually through third-party scheme developers. The UK’s Atom Bank is taking a direct approach.