The ingredients they have to go out and find, but then the tastes become refined.
Moosemeat & Marmalade is a television show that bundles up for the wilderness, loads the gun, baits the hook, sets the snare, combs the flora, and patiently gathers the natural bounty humans have depended on since cave cuisine.
The show also sharpens the knife, opens the spice rack, heats the saucepan, and sets the table for a genteel meal fit for high society.
Those two worlds could collide and crumble in the hands of haughty hunters and chauvinist chefs, but when you have Art Napoleon and Dan Hayes pulling the trigger, it is a sumptuous meal for the mind.
Both hosts live in Victoria where they met accidentally but almost immediately understood they were different feathers from the same bird.
Napoleon is originally from Moberly Lake north of Prince George where he grew up in close touch with the land and his Cree and Dane Zaa heritage. He was chief of the Saulteau First Nation and now has a master's degree in language revitalization from the University of Victoria.
He came to national attention first as a celebrated musician, has a natural comedic delivery to his showmanship and made the transition to television hosting when he met classically trained British chef Hayes, who was trained by the legendary Rick Stein at England's prestigious Poisonnerie de l'Avenue restaurant. Hayes also spend time growing up in Ibiza, Spain, before moving to the world's most British city outside of England where he co-owns (with wife Micayla) The London Chef cooking school, cafe and caterer.
That latter profession is what brought British Hayes in touch with our Salteau Napoleon.
"Art already had something in the pipeline, developing a show with (television producer) Hilary Pryor at May Street Productions, and at the same time my catering company got the contract to do the food for (children's show) Tiga Talk and Art happened to be one of the characters in Tiga Talk. Art and I started chatting in the lineup as he was getting his food, I was serving, and we very briefly talked about hunting as kids, growing up hunting, while Hilary was standing behind him and overheard this great big Cree and this white guy chatting about those bizarre similarities, and lots of differences, obviously. So Art and I did a screen test, took the concept of the show they were working on, and put me into it, and it became a bigger thing. It took off. I think I'm right in saying, now, that it's in nine countries."
"He knows the tricks of the trade," said Napoleon of his oddcouple co-host. "I'm impressed by any chef who knows the scientific aspects of what happens when you put this with that, the terminology, I pick up so much just by cooking with him. I'm starting to understand the culinary world a little more because I was always just a short-order cook, a home cook, and a bush cook in firefighting camps where everything was done on gas stoves or wood fires. That's really more my specialty, but now I want to see what can be created by using wild game and wild plants using new ways. I can now make a mean moose curry, a moose nose taco, mixing other styles with our traditional ingredients."
So Hayes, although the apparent socialite, was actually a hunter back in his European childhood, and Napoleon, the apparent bushman, was actually versed in cooking. They trade off on primary strengths, but both hold some grasp on the other's essence.
They needle each other on camera, and make fun of their supposed shortcomings, but the banter is good-natured fun and always comes around to a mutual respect by the end of each episode. Hayes might complain about the howling frigid air as they trudge out on the tundra to shoot an Arctic hare, while Napoleon laughs it off as child's play, but both put in the work to track the quarry and Hayes is the one to shoot their prey.
In the same episode, Hayes makes fun of Napoleon's use of canned mushroom soup as an ingredient in the hare dish they co-create back in the kitchen but Napoleon explains that it is a staple of rural pantries and commonly used in home cooking on First Nations reserves. Hayes reluctantly admits, in the end, it tastes excellent, and Napoleon takes advice on ways to make a wholesome meal around the main hare dish.
"I can't say it has changed me as a chef, is the honest truth, but I have learned a huge amount from Art," said Hayes. "Words can't explain what I've learned from Art in terms of what one can eat walking through a forest. His knowledge about plants and shoots and moss and twigs and bits he insists in sticking in my mouth - he hasn't made me sick yet, I'll give him that, nor has he made me high as a kite on hallucinogens. And I've also learned a lot about the spiritual side of foods from Art. Now, I've always been a hunter. I grew up hunting and fishing, it's a big part of my life and continues to be, and I have immense respect for what I kill, but I still don't have a spiritual connection to it, and I'm not sure I ever will, but I can claim that I'm starting to understand the spiritual connection."
The show has advanced public knowledge on both sides of the skillet: the healthy and delicious possibilities of a local at-hand diet, and also how worldly preparation techniques are immensely helpful and much easier than you might think.
The show also explains that Indigenous traditions can be easily applied as well, and that meat is not only healthy but also part of an ecosystem balance involving humans.
"We all know how easy it is to plant carrots in Iqaluit, eh," Napoleon deadpans.
Moosemeat & Marmalade also has a side-series of mini documentaries on the topics of food security, the implications of genetically modified food sources, cumulative impacts of industrialized food production, and other societal food topics.
The appendage series is called Food For Thought, there are four episodes (each centred on a direction) and has already won awards for the duo.
It's the first example of the additional material Hayes and Napoleon could potentially have in their sights as Moosemeat & Marmalade rolls out its fourth season on APTN in Canada, plus other networks internationally. They have also added episodes in other parts of the world to their extensive Canadian travels.
"My favourite part still is and always will be the going out and filming," said Napoleon. "It's going out, engaging with communities, meeting people, it always feels like an adventure being out on the road with the crew. I live for it."
Hayes keeps hoping Napoleon will bring him back to this area to visit family and go out into the Moberly Lake backcountry to explore for foraged food and cultural connection.
Napoleon will be in Lheidli T'enneh territory in Prince George as the musical guest and master of ceremonies for the Fourth Annual Ying'hentzit First Nations Art Gala on April 27 at the new Uda dune Baiyah Community Centre. This is a fundraiser for Carrier Sekani Family Services.
