An Ode to Game and Gastronomy: Chicago Game at Terra Spice

On February 1st, we hosted a meal at Terra Spice to celebrate the 20+ year relationship between our company and Chicago Game & Gourmet. This lunch featured game meat selected by Chicago Game & Gourmet owner Peter Andrews, and prepared by our owner Philip Abbott.

Philip and Peter became friends before Terra Spice existed. At the time, Philip was the executive chef at The Summit Club, an elite dining experience at the top of Liberty Tower in South Bend, Indiana. Naturally, a high-end chef needs high-end ingredients, and Phillip sourced ingredients from Peter at Chicago Game. So when Philip left the restaurant to start Terra Spice, Peter was one of our first customers. Now, decades later, the two still work together and operate their businesses with a similar philosophy.

A few days before the meal, Peter sent a delivery of bison roast, elk topside steaks, ground wild boar, ground venison, duck legs, and—to Philip’s delight—a large tub of duck fat. Then, Philip worked to craft a menu around these ingredients titled Rustic Elegance: An Ode to Game and Gastronomy and invited friends around the table who share a passion for game meat. The five-course meal featured duck confit salad, bison yankee pot roast, grilled elk topside steaks, wild beast meatloaf, and maple crème brûlée.

Chicago Game & Gourmet was founded in 1996 sourcing high-end, often rare, products and matching them with the region’s great chefs. About fifty percent of the company’s revenue comes from game meat—elk, bison, venison, and wild boar to name a few. The other half of the revenue comes from selling high-end dry goods—including chef-crafted blends from Terra Spice.

For Peter, the job requires decades of relationships with vendors, specific expertise in game meat sourcing, and earned trust from the elite chefs who rely on him. And so, this meal was a hearty celebration of Peter and Philip’s similarly careful sourcing. Between courses, Peter shared stories of how the animals were raised, why certain meats can taste ‘gamey’, and how his vendors avoid this. Philip shared his preparation for each course and the spices used. 

Philip and Peter are united in their commitment to excellence in every part of their process. This means being extremely hands-on and keeping operations small and tight. Many spice companies and meat distributors have been acquired by large corporations that prioritize growth over excellence. Not these two. Terra Spice and Chicago Game & Gourmet have stayed small to prioritize the craft, the products, and the producers over personal financial gain. 

Call Terra Spice any hour of the day and Philip will pick up the phone to answer your questions. Stop by Chicago Game & Gourmet and Peter will be there to share the best way to prepare an elk steak. This shared vision kept the two in contact over the decades through similar ups and downs as small businesses in the industry, struggling, pivoting, and surviving through the pandemic and the unpredictable years since.

Chicago Game & Gourmet opened a retail arm of their business during the pandemic to offer the same high-end products to passionate home chefs. “I’d say about ninety-five percent of our business is wholesale right now,” Peter explained. “It was one-hundred percent, but when the pandemic hit we had to do something.” 

Now, like Terra Spice, Peter is working to expand their reach to a new kind of customer—home chefs who are willing to spend more to get the highest quality ingredients.