Diners fret as the sun sets on foie gras in Chicago
Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:32am ET

By Brad Dorfman

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In a few weeks it will be illegal
to sell foie gras in Chicago; but fans of the delicacy
are not going quietly into the night.

On a recent evening more than 100 of them paid $150
each to dine on grilled foie gras with cherry chutney
and peppercorn brioche; salt and herb cured foie gras
with lamb prosciutto; ravioli of foie gras, pheasant
and apple and other treats as chefs talked of
overturning the ban.

"It does bother me the way it's raised, but then my
grandfather raised cattle in Kansas, so I'm very aware
of what farm life is like," said Pati Heestand, a
retired graphic designer and foie gras aficionado.

Chicago's City Council in April voted to make the city
the first in the country to ban the restaurant sale of
foie gras, which detractors argue is inhumanely
produced by force-feeding ducks and geese through a
tube to fatten their livers.

The ban is to take effect August 22 when restaurants
found selling foie gras will face a $500 fine.

Foie gras proponents argue that the feeding of the
high protein diet through a tube is not inhumane
because the fowl do not have a gag reflex like humans.
They say the extreme amount of feeding is somewhat
similar to what the birds do in the wild anyway to
store energy before long migrations.

"I've been to a foie gras farm," said Dean Zanella,
executive chef at 312 Chicago. "They seem very happy.
I've never seen one (bird) being mistreated."

The foie gras ban prompted praise by some and ridicule
by others worldwide, with Chicago's own Mayor Richard
Daley suggesting the council could better spend its
time focusing on more serious issues.
The chefs at this week's gathering agreed and
contemplated strategies to combat the ban, including
filing a lawsuit, or trying to get around the ban of
the sale by foie gras by giving it away for "free"
along with, say, a markedly overpriced $20 plate of
lentils or $40 glass of wine.

'CONSUMER CHOICE' VS 'EGREGIOUS CRUELTY'

Michael Tsonton, executive chef at Copperblue in
Chicago and a founder of Chicago Chefs for Choice, a
group formed after the ban was approved in April, said
the free market should determine whether foie gras is
sold.

He noted that when consumers boycotted tuna because
dolphins caught in tuna nets were harmed, the tuna
fishing industry changed its practices.

"If you don't like it, you don't buy it. It's a
consumer choice issue," Tsonton said. "It's not an
issue for legislation."

A lawsuit planned to try to void the ordinance is in
the works, though restaurateurs, who need city
licenses to operate, first want assurances they won't
be punished for going to court, he said.

Joe Moore, the alderman who sponsored the ordinance,
discounted the thought by some that once foie gras is
banned other foods raised under practices animal
rights activists decry, including commercially raised
chickens, would be next.

"It's the most egregious example of cruelty to animals
in order to produce a product that is at best a
luxury," Moore said, adding that he received hundreds
of comments when the measure passed, with about 60
percent in favor of the ordinance.

Still, the chefs worried that the organizations who
pushed for the foie gras ban would target other foods.