Moore also champions game shooting as being positive for the environment, when groups, usually comprising friends, gather to socialise and shoot driven birds. “If you consider the meat that comes from that pursuit, it is reared over land where flora and ground cover is encouraged and managed, with the planting of such things as bee avenues and chamomile.

“Look at a sheep farm and you’ll see little else but grazing pasture and beech hedges,” he says. “And shooting provides and encourages viable jobs, from gamekeeping to loading [assisting those who shoot], picking up [of game shot, with dogs trained for the purpose], not to mention the hotels, pubs, restaurants and taxis used by guests.”

As for the eating, Moore explains: “I’m keen to show people the knowledge that I’ve gained while cooking wild meat. It’s not all about slow cooking and casseroles. And there are simple techniques, such as brining, that can transform those meats and bring a really intense flavour.”

He recommends simple brining methods: dropping pheasant meat, for example, into a tub of water, salt, apple juice and milk for a few hours. “Then when you come to roast, fry or grill it, you’ll be amazed,” he promises. “Offered that, why would anyone ever choose the white, unworked, intensely farmed chicken?”

Moore has been a country man since his childhood in Denbighshire, rural north Wales. “I used to go off with the dogs and walk for hours and hours and, aged 14, I started to cater for shoot lunches,” he says. “When I left school I went to Bath Spa to study physical geography, but after four months I packed it in.” 

He travelled around France and Italy in between spells working for his father, before returning to the UK and enrolling at Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. A year later, he emerged with a diploma.

Moore began to cook in private villas in summer and for shoots in winter. “I knew I didn’t want to be in the restaurant world,” he admits. “The tie to such a thing seemed like too great a hardship.” Now he is the game chef for Loyton, which runs a portfolio of shoots: “I get a free rein and relish cooking great food for some quite fancy people.”

He has also settled in the small village of Exford in Exmoor. “Every mile you drive towards Exmoor from Taunton is another year back in time,” says Moore. 

“I love its rawness and its realness. I see Exmoor as a bubble, an island, like the Highlands of Scotland but just a few hours from London. Here, I can walk for miles and see nothing but deer, ponies and wildlife.” 

He then distils those wild elements onto my plate. So now, fresh from the grill, his apple-brined pheasant alongside a rich rice dish – a paella infused with the flavours of game – and some smoked quince aïoli is a revelation that even my kids would relish.