Mona’s Kirsha Kaechele releases cookbook of pest species recipes

If you can’t beat them, eat them. That’s the beautifully packaged message Mona first lady Kirsha Kaechele sends in her new art cookbook on eating invasive species.

Kirsha Kaechele at Mona. Picture: JESSE HUNNIFORD

If you can’t beat them, eat them. That’s the beautifully packaged message Mona first lady Kirsha Kaechele sends in her new art cookbook on invasive species.

Eat the Problem will be released on Monday, with a series of spectacular feasts and an exhibition at the Berriedale museum to follow in coming weeks.

Proceeds from the hefty 544-page tome, which is $277.77 a copy, will go towards Kaechele’s 24 Carrot healthy eating program in Hobart primary schools.

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Recipes in the cookbook range from shocking – think coal-roasted cat, sweet and sour cane-toad legs and fox curry – to less challenging game such as rabbit and venison.

“So many of the foods we view as pests are popular in another cuisine and part of a whole culture. It’s just that we didn’t evolve with that particular animal, so we don’t have a culinary tradition built around it,” Ms Kaechele said.

The book is the culmination of a five-year labour of love for the American artist, who is married to the Museum of Old and New Art’s founder, David Walsh.

Tasweekend March 23-24 2019

Each recipe focuses on an invasive species, with particular focus on Tasmanian invaders including the long-spined sea urchin — the NSW native now numbers 20 million in Tasmanian waters.

“Sea urchin is having a devastating effect on the ocean floor around Tasmania and most people don’t see it,” says Ms Kaechele.

Star chefs were lining up to cook the marine pest for Eat the Problem, though, she said.

“That was the number one request because of the culinary potential.”

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