US: Don't come between foodies and their foie gras. That was the message sent out by Chicago diners who dug in on Monday night on the eve of the city's ban on the delicacy taking effect. Fancy restaurants had special foie gras tastings to protest at the ban and even a few sandwich and pizza joints added it to their menus for the occasion.
At the 676 Restaurant & Bar on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, chef Robert Gadsby topped foie gras with "Pop Rocks" sweets, wrapped it in prosciutto and blended it into hot chocolate as part of an "Outlaw Dinner" that also featured such controversial ingredients as wild morels, absinthe, unpasteurised imported cheese and hemp seeds. While the seven-course, $140 dinner was completely legal, all the ingredients have at some point been banned.
Gadsby, a chef known for his pop-cultural, eccentric approach to American food, called the foie gras ban "ridiculous". "What's next?" asked Gadsby, who also hosted an Outlaw Dinner last month at his Noe Restaurant & Bar in Los Angeles, where foie gras will be subject to a statewide ban by 2012. "They'll outlaw truffles, then lobster, beluga caviare, oysters. There are diners who eat to fill a hunger urge and there are diners who eat to be dazzled. If you take away the luxury ingredients, how can you dazzle them?"
The Chicago City Council passed the foie gras ban in April, joining California and several European countries that have outlawed foie gras animal cruelty. Foie gras, "fatty liver," is produced by force-feeding grain to ducks and geese until their liver enlarges to as much as 10 times its normal size.
"This isn't telling people what to eat: this is basically a statement against cruelty to animals," said alderman Joe Moore, sponsor of the ordinance. "This is a product of animal torture, pure and simple. It doesn't need to be on menus in Chicago."
Chicago restaurant luminaries Charlie Trotter and Rick Tramonto agree and have both vowed not to serve the liver dish, but others want to fight. On Tuesday, the Illinois Restaurant Association and Allen's, the New American Café in Chicago, filed a lawsuit challenging the ban.
The city's department of public health will respond to initial reports of foie gras sales with a letter; if there is a second report, health inspectors will pay a visit. Health department spokesman Tim Hadac said there is little departmental enthusiasm for the ban, which Mayor Richard M Daley has mocked as the "silliest law" passed by the council.
The ordinance bans only the sale of foie gras, so restaurateurs have speculated that they can get around it by giving it away or serving it at private parties.
Meanwhile, various chefs have reported a hugely increased demand for the dish since the ordinance was approved. "Before, a lot of people didn't even know what foie gras is. Now they all want to try it," said Chicago chef Roger Herring, who held a tasting at his restaurant late on Monday.
Another item on the Outlaw Dinner menu, wild morels, were briefly banned in California because of fears they would be confused with poisonous mushrooms. Absinthe in its hallucinogenic form, with wormwood, is banned in the US.
Some Chicagoans are outraged at what they see as a patronising law, even if they rarely eat foie gras. "They might as well make a citywide bedtime ordinance," said bartender David Brown (29). "It's like banning smoking. If I'm a bartender, I don't run a health club. We're adults; we're allowed to have bad habits."