Controversy over restaurant serving possum cassoulet

A menu offering possum cassoulet at a restaurant in Victoria, Australia, has caused quite a stir. For the past few months Leoni Clayton, the chef at the Goldfields Comfort Inn in Stawell, has featured possum in one form or another on her menu. "It's very much like rabbit meat, a bit more tasty, a bit more moist. It's not too gamey, as you would expect," she said. "I can't think of anything else that would come close to it. You can't compare it to chicken or anything like that."



It first appeared on the menu as a pie, but is now being used in a cassoulet. "Four months ago I had a supplier say, 'Oh, I've been asked to source possum for someone else to look at, are you interested?'" she said. "He knows me... he knows I'll try anything new as long as it's ethical and nothing untoward. I love to try new things and to see how it goes with the public." She said the dishes had been incredibly popular, but that the restaurant experienced a backlash as word started to spread about her use of the iconic Australian animal.

Ms Clayton said she was shocked at some of the angry responses. "People are just wanting to try it [in the restaurant]. I expected a few comments ... but not to the extent that it's actually hit, and quite aggressive some of it," she said. "I've always served kangaroo on my menus, no one's ever commented on that. They're culled, the kangaroos I've put on. You just think to yourself why this reaction when yes, people do eat cats and dogs overseas, it's the way they eat, it's their form of life. What's so bad about using meat that's actually ethically sourced?"



Ms Clayton said her experiment with possum was about working with different meats, not "going out with a shotgun and killing off our endangered species". "I love animals, I've always had pets. I cried when I had to put my 15-year-old guinea pig down. It's not a thing about going out and killing wildlife, its about what can we do to make food interesting. It actually was selling well but it probably won't now, so I'll have to change the menu." She said it is illegal to kill possums in Victoria, but was sourcing farmed meat from Tasmania. "Please don't go out and shoot beautiful possums that are living wild, but if it's ethically sourced I have no problem with it."