I thought I would start my blogging career with the controversial topic of:  FOIE GRAS

Controversy, it seems is the way to create reader-ship. I thought a bit of hype might get more attention than say……? A piece on the inner workings of my kitchen-aid. Many controversial public figures have a huge following, whether you like them or not.

Jeremy Clarkson, Simon Cowell and Michael Moore are awesomely controversial. Check out these peaches:

 

Jeremy Clarkson (from here on in referred to as JC):

·         “The Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite”

·         On Mandela’s claim that Cuba is a good advert for democracy: “Well Mr Mandela why don’t you go and ask one of the 12 year old Cuban prostitutes which way her parents voted?”

·         “I don’t often agree with the RSPCA as I believe it is an animal’s duty to be on my plate at supper time.” – Clearly my favourite!

Simon Cowell:

·         “If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning.”

·         “We have hated the French for years. Now you have just joined the club. It makes you much more likable.”

Michael Moore:

·         “Any time you’ve got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.”

·         “White people scare the crap out of me.” – For those who don’t know Michael Moore is a white boy

 

And so that brings me to the controversial topic of foie gras.

 

Let me start by saying that foie gras is as good; I’m sure, as drinking Jose Cuervo out of Charlize Therons’ belly button.

Seasoned heavily, fried in a white-hot pan and served with toasted brioche and a small glass of Vin de Constance, foie gras is my idea of food nirvana.

 

Let me explain very quickly to those of you who live on Pluto; Foie Gras is the distended liver of a goose. That’s right. The over-inflated, eight times the normal size, perhaps uncomfortable liver of a goose. So what? You may ask. Where’s the controversy?

It’s in the production.

In order to get the liver to this size, the birds must be force fed by some little Frenchman for a few weeks before slaughter.

The “I-don’t-eat-foie-gras-do-gooder-environmentalists” say that the geese don’t like this and it’ is cruel. Well it might just be. That in short is the controversy.

 I am of the opinion that; if it walks and tastes good when seasoned and cooked: EAT IT!

 

Typical foie gras production involves force-feeding these ill tempered geese more food than they would eat in the wild, and much more than they would voluntarily eat domestically. Geese and ducks are omnivorous, and, like many birds, have expansive throats allowing them to store large amounts of food, either whole or pre-digested, in the crop, an enlarged portion of the oesophagus, while awaiting digestion in the stomach, similar to python feeding. In the wild this dilation allows them to swallow large foodstuffs, such as a whole fish, for a later, long digestion. Migratory birds have the capacity for weight gain, particularly in the liver, in preparation for migration. Force feeding produces a liver that is six to ten times its ordinary size. Uncomfortable for the geese perhaps, but definitely still very, very awesome on the palate.

In production of this delicious, buttery fat liver, the geese spend most of their time outside, but are kept in pens inside for the remainder of their lives, being force-fed. Some times in conditions comparable to those of poor stow-a-ways, packed into shipping containers by the dozen and kept in the dark for a fort night. Mortality rates can be pretty high during the gavage (force feeding) phase. I do understand why the “tree-huggers” have school girl rants about it.

But even so, foie gras is still very, very awesome!

 

As a chef though, ideally I do look for alternative, more humane and sustainable production methods. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still eating as much foie gras as I can afford. Yes, despite the birds living conditions.

The more humane method involves timing the slaughter to coincide with the winter migration, when livers are naturally fattened. This has only recently been produced commercially, and is a very small fraction of the market. Some producers are producing foie gras by taking advantage of the natural instinct of geese to fatten their livers in preparation for migration. Non-force-fed fatty goose livers by similar methods produce livers two to three times that of normal goose livers as opposed to six times for force-fed geese. Smaller livers, same taste… I’m in.

 

 

Early in the nineteenth century, English writer Sydney Smith wrote;

“My idea of heaven is eating patés de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.”

I like the sound of that! Perhaps I should be looking for some waitrons with trumpeting skills.

 

Happy Eating!

 

Brad