How Steven Rinella Became America's Wild Game 'Middle Man'

Steven Rinella has spent decades hunting, cooking, writing and teaching. But the founder of MeatEater still seems surprised that anyone thinks his approach is unusual.

"I was brought up by an avid hunter," he told OutKick Outdoors. "Food was always just very baked into it. Wild game was like a thing to celebrate. If my parents had a party in the fall, we’d catch salmon, and they’d have a salmon boil. Or you'd have a fish fry and invite everybody over, right? If it was the Super Bowl, there'd be deer meat chili."

To him, hunting and eating were inseparable.

Steven Rinella is host of the Netflix series, <i>MeatEater</i>, where he "brings game meat from field to table in remote regions."

(Photo by John Hafner)

When he started writing and filming, he didn't think he was doing anything revolutionary. But others did. And, suddenly, Rinella had unintentionally created a national movement around wild game.

When I talked with Steve last week, what struck me most wasn't just his encyclopedic knowledge of hunting or his thousands of hours spent cooking everything from halibut to deer to duck to octopus. It was the way he talked about wild food — like a cultural translator or, as he put it, a kind of "middle man" between regional traditions and a generation that grew up thinking meat only comes pre-trimmed in Styrofoam.

Watch the full interview with Steven Rinella here:

"I think that my scope and what I understood really grew from so much time in Alaska and time in the Rocky Mountains and then time overseas," Rinella explained. "Like hanging out with Indians in South America, or indigenous cultures and picking up how they handle food and learning all that.

"I try very hard to translate things I learned from around the country or around the world and show them to people."

From the MeatEater Cookbooks

(Photo by John Hafner)

His new MeatEater Cookbooks box set reflects that approach, breaking recipes down by cuts and methods rather than species. Because in his view, "there's no such thing as an antelope recipe." What matters is whether you’re cooking shank, rib, loin, neck. The name of the animal isn't important.

That perspective has helped beginners feel more confident and longtime hunters get more creative. It's also led Rinella down some strange culinary roads, not all successful.

In our full interview, he talks openly about the victories and the failures, including the animals he "gave up" on, much to his kids' disappointment.

From the MeatEater Cookbooks

(Photo by John Hafner)

While he's best known for his cooking and conservation work, Rinella is equally passionate about the history of his craft. His MeatEater’s American History project digs into the long hunters, mountain men, hide hunters, and next, the "Alaskans" of the roaring 1920s. As he explains it, the series is about "what those guys actually did for a living, and what that industry looked like from a work perspective."

We also talked about wild game for beginners, the regional myths about what animals "can't" be eaten, the freeze-dried buffalo meals he helped create, and his very strong opinions about Thanksgiving turkey — which happen to cause a yearly fight in his house. 

(Hot take alert: Steve Rinella doesn't think we should eat turkeys on Thanksgiving.)

What became clear while talking with Rinella is that he doesn't see himself as a celebrity chef or a hunting personality. He sees himself as a student first — someone still learning, still experimenting and still trying to make wild food less intimidating for everyone else.

So whether you're a seasoned hunter and angler or you're just curious about broadening your food horizons, this conversation is worth your time.

OutKick Outdoors' new interview series, Open Season, brings you conversations with adventurers, hunters, hikers, anglers, conservationists, and everyday people with unbelievable outdoor stories. Got a guest idea? Email me at Amber.Harding@outkick.com — we'd love to hear who we should talk to next!