Chicago restaurants can no longer sell the pricey liver delicacy that most Chicagoans can't afford, have never tasted and probably never will, under an ordinance unanimously approved at Wednesday's City Council meeting over Mayor Daley's derisive objections.

On April 26 of this year Chicago's aldermen unanimously banned the sale of foie gras, the artery clogging fatty liver produced by gavaging, scil., force-feeding, fowl to distend the liver. It is a signature French delicacy. Civic-minded Chicagoans have taken note of the ban.

CHICAGO FEASTS ON FOIE GRAS AS BAN NEARS

NEW YORK August 17, 2006 (Telegraph) - Residents of Chicago are gorging themselves on foie gras days before the city becomes the first to ban the French delicacy because of the way in which it is produced. Restaurants across the city have been throwing goodbye parties to salute the pâté before the ban comes into effect on Tuesday.

Didier Durand, a restaurateur, said: "Pretty soon we're going to be eating grass."

But Chef Didier Durand,* the French-born chef/owner of Cyrano's Bistrot & Wine Bar and founding member of Chicago Chefs for Choice, which is fighting the ordinance in court, intends to defy the ban while complying with the letter of the law:

[M. Durand] plans to serve the banned delicacy anyway, claiming the law prohibits restaurants from selling foie gras but not from giving it away. "I will serve foie gras with some seasoned potatoes, some brioche and some greens. I will charge $15 dollars for the potatoes, the greens and the brioche."

The foie gras, he says, is free.

The ban goes into effect today, August 22.

Pave holds no brief for foie gras. Gavaging is bizarre and cruel. But then so is everyday butchery to the non-butcher. So is industrial chicken or pig farming. Veal, Kobe beef, lobster -- all these smack of cruelty if you are inclined to be smacked. Most everything you eat arrives in the mouth by some circuit of suffering.

Foie gras claims a 4,500-year history and was once a staple of the peasant diet. If it represents an exceptional evil, albeit an exceptionally delectable and exceptionally cultivated evil, then why is it not sufficient to appeal to the conscience of the Chicagoan diner?

There is no appeal to the conscience of the sybaritic French, who produce some 75% of world production (18,450 tonnes/2K5), consuming more than they produce (19,000 tonnes/2K5). Far-sighted French legislators have protected French foie gras under cultural heritage law, which ends any discussion with the animal rights and antivivisectionist crowd.

But Chicago gourmands need not weep. Foie gras is soon but a car jaunt away. This fall foie gras Chef Rick Tramonto, whose restaurant Tru will abide by the ban, is opening establishments in the suburbs beyond the reach of Chicago's ordinance. Foie gras will be served.

* M. Durand, who serves foie gas en casserole, also serves dogs à la table from a $5 doggy menu.

PFFT (What is this?): A better world without foie gras ½ | A better Chicago without foie gras ¼ | Rayonnement américain 0