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Campaigns One Man's Liver... 4/4/05 The Chef Recommends That You Enjoy the Sauternes All by Itself Tonight
The list of things we do to animals before we eat them is constrained
only by the limits of human hunger and ingenuity, which means it
is not constrained by much. Trapping, hooking, netting,
plucking, bleeding, butter-flying, beheading,
gutting - the search for delicious knows few bounds or qualms. That's why it is surprising that a prominent chef, of all people -
Charlie Trotter, the TV celebrity and author from Chicago - would
decide to draw the line at a practice as old and esteemed as the
force-feeding of ducks and geese to give them fatty, luscious livers. That's right: Chef Trotter has renounced foie gras, on ethical grounds.
He says he stopped serving it about three years ago, after becoming
unnerved at the sight of farm ducks being tube-fed into obesity. He kept
quiet about it, but the conspicuous absence of foie gras from his menus led
to rumors in the restaurant world, and he was outed last Tuesday in The
Chicago Tribune. Don't be frightened, foodies, but this may be a trend - another example
of how far the animal-rights cause has come in from the fringe. Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger last year banned the production or sale of foie
gras in California. (The law takes effect in 2012, to give the state's tiny foie gras
industry - basically, a guy in Sonoma named Guillermo - time to adjust.)
A similar bill has been introduced in New York, the country's only other
foie gras producer. Other chefs, perhaps fearing the
unthinkable, have jumped all over Mr. Trotter, calling his
gesture hypocritical grandstanding by a media hound (and author,
so you know, of "Charlie Trotter's Meat and Game," with recipes like
Foie Gras Five Ways and Sweet-and-Sour Braised Lettuce Soup With Foie Gras
and Radishes). They should knock it off. Fine cooking is fine art, and Mr. Trotter
should feel free to use whatever materials he likes. He says
foie gras is cruel, but he could have also called it boring - a clich�
slurped by too many diners who, we suspect, would swoon just as easily over
the velvety succulence of Spam or schmaltz on rye, if they were
prohibitively priced and listed on the menu in French. By spurning an easy
fix of fancy fat, Mr. Trotter is simply making his job a bit harder, and
this man-eat-duck world a slightly kinder place. There is much to admire in that. To Submit a Letter to the Editor of the New York Times:
[email protected]
Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number. Article Title : One Man's Liver... Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/opinion/04mon4.html Fair Use Notice: This document may contain
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