Eat What You Kill

Eat What You Kill! It is not just a hashtag, or a company slogan but it’s a way of life for this 25-year veteran chef. Jeremy Critchfield is a Pennsylvania native and a 5-star restaurant-rated chef and boss of Hunt Chef, a spice company he founded that will stimulate your palate to a new dimension.

Jeremy Critchfield started hunting with his grandfather at a young age, where he learned the true art of hunting, and proper wild game food preparation through his close family. He likes to share that his family Thanksgiving dinner as a child was the ‘true Pilgrim’s feast’, which included a family-hunted wild turkey, a tradition he is continuing to maintain with his own three children. He then expanded on his experience of hunting, butchering and cooking knowledge, having taken his skills to the University of Indiana’s Pennsylvania School of Culinary Arts, studying under the mentorship of Chef Albert Wutsch with whom he still maintains a close relationship today. Critchfield has taken his craft to 5-star and Michelin-rated restaurants including a previous position as an Executive Chef at the famed, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pennsylvania. When he is not busy creating his signature spices, you can find Critchfield as a chef at the Stone House Restaurant and Country Inn. A historic venue, also located in Farmington, serves the tri-state areas of Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia, which has been catering to waggoneers and travelers seeking refuge in the beautiful Laurel Highlands since 1822.

I had the chance to meet and watch Critchfield work his magic in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the 2022 NRA-sponsored Great American Outdoor Show during the Wild Game cooking session. Critchfield used a freshly cut leg round and back strap of venison to create a wild game soup, as well as, a fantastic hash brown casserole to accompany any breakfast entrée. He included his signature, wildly flavorful spices, Reel Dam Deal, a fish and seafood rub, and Straight Outta Pontchartrain, a Louisiana-style blackened seasoning, to bring out the distinct flavoring in the deer meat in both the soup and the casserole dishes. The Hunt Chef offers up to twelve different spice rubs, in addition to nine different brine and sausage kits.

You can also find Critchfield on several different YouTube channels and every Tuesday on Hunt Chef Outdoors and Hunt Chef Live, both interactive shows on Facebook that will offer you instructional episodes on cooking wild game. In addition, you can check out Jeremy Critchfield and Jeremiah Voithofer on the Sportsman Channel-featured TV show MTN Top outdoors, where this pair shares their passion for the outdoors and bring you exclusive episodes of their adventures throughout America.

Cheers to you, Jeremy Critchfield, and all you have brought and continue to bring to this beautiful craft. I strongly encourage you to visit www.huntchef.com and also take the time to visit www.stonehouseinn.com where you will find a variety of fabulous Critchfield recipes and more.