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Fine With Foie California's foie gras ban gets chefs heated up. Thursday, October 11, 2012 Francine Cohen

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Fat generally isn’t prized in this country with its mantra that thin is in.  For most people, gone are the olden days when fat represented health and wealth and pleasure.  Except when it comes to one thing…food.  Still highly cherished on the plate are those slick marbled steaks, thick white veins in bacon, and the silky richness of a fatty duck liver we crave when we order foie gras.    What a wonderful pleasure to treat yourself to when dining out.  Unless of course you’re dining out in California.

With the state’s recent ban on the production and sale of foie gras, it’s been stripped off menus left and right and guests can’t order it and expect to find it on their bill as they would with any other dish.  For many, this is disconcerting.  Particularly in restaurants like Ken Frank’s La Toque, the Michelin starred restaurant attached to the Westin Verasa Napa which draws local and hotel guests alike. 

Chef/owner Frank notes the dismay of his regular customers who come in eagerly anticipating his foie gras preparation as a way to celebrate a delightful night out and are dismayed to find it no longer on the menu.  He comments, “They are disappointed and upset.  It’s something they look forward to here.  Something they look forward to on special occasions.  And they miss it.  We’re doing our best to get them through.”

Frank’s answer to getting them through involves following the letter of the law which, according to the statute specifies (in part) that “A product may not be sold in California if it is the result of force feeding a bird for the purpose of enlarging the bird’s liver beyond normal size.”  He notes, “First of all, foie gras is still plenty available; as you might imagine.  Prohibition isn’t working.  All the good chefs who want to serve it are.”

He continues, “We have had very specific training with the staff about the fact that it is NOT on the menu.  It is NOT for sale.  We do let them know that ‘if you identify a regular customer and/or a foodie who might enjoy it you tell us in the kitchen and we’d be happy to gift them with it.  Here at La Toque I absorb the cost; it’s about keeping foie gras taste available in public.  I serve truly free foie gras on principal every night – to keep the taste of foie alive and to keep my cooks’ skills at cooking foie gras at the very highest levels sharp.”

Frank’s careful step right through the loophole left wide open by the bill’s language is precisely how other chefs are also getting around this ban they see as ridiculous and restrictive.  Reports are that one or two California chefs have re-written their menu so that there is now a fruit chutney selection.  And wouldn’t you know, the fruit chutney comes accompanied by foie gras. 

Approaches like this, in order to keep guests in the foie gras that they desire, may seem extreme, but, despite the fact that the authorities probably have better things to do than police kitchens, it is necessary in order to avoid the potential $1,000 per incident per day fine that can be imposed.

To avoid that potential financial hit Josh Thomsen, the 2010 Star Chefs Rising Star Chef  and former executive chef at the Claremont Hotel Club and Spa in Berkeley, simply took it off the menu at the request of his hotel’s management team which decided it had to go.  He explains, "We just didn’t want to fight the fight.” 

Despite removing foie gras from the menu he still feels strongly that the legislature shouldn’t be determining his menu or his guests’ choices and having a say in the hotel’s revenue.  He comments, “We are telling people what they can and can’t eat.  Like Bloomberg and the large sodas in New York City.  It’s not like smoking.  You can tell me I can’t go into a restaurant or a business and not smoke – I get that I’m affecting someone else if I do it.  But if I order foie gras I’m not impacting anyone else.”

That, along with the impact on the bottom line, seems to be the major sticking point for many chefs.  They’ve been providing a dish that has centuries of culinary history behind it and guests clamor for it, so why pull it off the menu?  Aside from the highly political nature of the ban created to appease a small number of special interest groups, it’s the larger group – the guests and restaurants - that truly feel the pinch.  Thomsen concludes, “The foie gras that I served was on one of my entrees, Filet Rossini.  It was a grass fed filet, underneath was sautéed spinach and a Yukon gold potato cake with a red wine reduction. On top was a 2 oz. piece of seared Hudson Valley foie gras.  It was one of the top selling dishes I had on the menu.  The government tells me I need to kill the number one selling entrée?  That’s really nuts.”