Edinburgh restaurant dishes up horse

- Published: 22 March, 2010

Edinburgh restaurant L’Escargot Bleu has started to serve horse meat on its menu, supplied by Campbell’s Prime Meats, according to a report in the Scottish media.

The Broughton Street eaterie now serves pan-fried horse rump steak, served with a peppercorn sauce and horse meat steak tartare, all of which have been sourced from the West Lothian-based meat supplier.

Campbell’s Prime Meats director Stevie Walker told The Herald: “I’ve been asked to source some unusual items in my time, but this is the first time I’ve ever been asked for horse meat. We had to find a supplier of French-bred horse meat, and he dropped it off for us at Rungis market. It was a challenge.”

A total of 70,000 horses are estimated to be eaten in France each year and, last week, an 8.5kg entire horse rump was delivered to the restaurant direct from Rungis market in Paris.

Fred Berkmiller, patron of L’Escargot Bleu, also told The Herald: “I’m not pushing people to eat horse, but I eat it regularly. It is tender, sweet and less fatty than beef, and contains higher levels of iron and Omega-3. Each time I go home to Tours, my father makes me a horse steak tartare. It’s so delicious I want my Scottish customers to taste it too.”

It is legal to import horse meat under strict EU regulations, but there are no official statistics on the amount of horse meat imported into the UK, as consumption is low.

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