THIS COOK'S AHEAD OF THE GAME.

Byline: Keith Lair Staff Writer

Snow goose is notorious for tasting too gamy.

But it does not have to, says Scott Leysath, who will have one of the featured seminars at the 58th annual Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Show this week at the Long Beach Convention Center.

``I had a guy tell me he smothers the goose in cream of mushroom soup and cooks it for several hours,'' the fish-and-game specialty cook recalled. ``When he did that, it couldn't have tasted like snow goose anymore. It had to taste like cream of mushroom soup.''

The secret to cooking game, he says is to not overcook. When it is overcooked, it becomes tough and gamy.

``You can cook a boot long enough to make it edible,'' he said. ``You can do that with about anything. But you don't want to.''

Leysath has become the preeminent game cook in the United States. He has spent four years with Paul James on Home Grown Cooking, currently on the Do It Yourself Network. He currently has his own game-cooking TV show, The Sporting Chef. It is broadcast in 11 Southeast states. He also does radio stints for two Southern California stations.

The 47-year-old also caters wild game at banquets and has written a book, ``The Sporting Chef's Favorite Wild Game Recipes'' cookbook. But he says all of his recipes are on his Web site, www.thesportingchef.com.

The Sacramento-area resident will cook elk, boar, quail, pheasant and fish in three stints on each of the five days of the Hall Show. One of his key topics is Short Attention Span Cooking, where he will quickly cook up game to be consumed by show attendees.

``My message is not to overcook,'' he said. ``Use simple marinades. When you cook to medium-well, you lose the game. Then, it's tough to chew.''

The avid hunter and angler was in corporate management of several Southern California restaurants 20 years ago. When the venture failed, he and a friend opened a Sacramento-area restaurant, Peter B's Freeport Inn. Outdoorsman would bring their bags to the restaurant to be cooked by Leysath.

``I would frequently be accused of not using their game,'' he recalled.

That led to the TV shows, the catering service and seminars, of which he does about 150 a year, mostly in the Southeast.

``It just kind of happened,'' he says of his current gig. ``I saw there was an opportunity, but not in my wildest dreams did I think I could pull it off. I guess I just got very, very lucky.''

Leysath says he gears most of his cooking techniques to game because fish is easier to cook. Sometimes, he'll do cooking shows straight from the field, but mostly the show is set in the kitchen.

Besides overcooking, he stresses that the game should not be kept in the freezer for more than a month; it loses its flavor.

``Shoot and catch only what you are going to eat in a month,'' he said. ``Save others for somebody else.''

Keith Lair, [phone]

keith.lair(at)sgvn.com