Mark Kempson, head chef at Kitchen W8 in London’s Kensington, is gearing up for the launch of the annual celebration of game menu. He talked us through the menu.

“I’m very pleased with the start of the game season,” Kempson told our editor Chandos Elletson. “We had the first grouse on the 16th August and they finished on the menu at the end of September. I don’t like them when they start to get older.

“Now we’re into October it’s time for the celebration of game menu and this is when the kitchen really gets ticking. We’re got a great line-up of dishes that all the chefs are excited about and we know our guests are too.

“We’re using grouse, partridge, venison and mallard. We saved all the grouse carcasses from earlier and used those to make a consommé which comes with a tartlet of grouse leg. Then we move on to a ballotine of partridge which is a warm salad course. Following that is a venison faggot which is basically the trimming from the haunch of venison we have on the a la carte menu.

Then it’s mallard which is the star of the show. The season has just begun and the birds coming in are superb. We finish off the meal with a bow to the damson which accompanies a brown butter and hazelnut tart

“It’s such a great time of year with all the squashes and wild mushrooms. We’ve got a game pop-up coming in November that we were going to do last year but it got postponed. It’s at our sister restaurant in Barnes called Home and I’ll also be cooking at Holland Holland on the 12th November so we’ve got a full game calendar. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Game is really popular at the moment and I’ve got recipes in both House & Garden and Field Sports Journal this year.”