Foie gras terrine, once again legal for Chicago diners.
Chicago Foie Gras Ban Repealed
City Council overturns two-year-old ban, freeing chefs to sell the embattled delicacy once again
Laurie Woolever
Posted: Friday, May 16, 2008
For foie gras lovers, it was a day of liberation; for animal-rights advocates, a waterloo in the Windy City. On May 14, at the urging of Mayor Richard Daley, Chicago’s city council voted 37-6 to legalize the sale of foie gras in restaurants, overturning a nearly two-year ban on the fattened goose and duck livers.
Over the past few years, foie gras has been the target of legislation and controversy in a handful of cities and states, including California, New Jersey and New York City. In 2007, Chef Wolfgang Puck announced that he would no longer offer foie gras at any of his restaurants worldwide.
In 2005, Joe Moore, alderman of Chicago’s 49th ward, introduced an ordinance banning the sale of foie gras in Chicago. More was inspired, he said at the time, by chef Charlie Trotter’s decision to stop serving foie in his eponymous, Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning Chicago restaurant. The ordinance was passed in 2006 by a 48-1 vote.
While animal-rights groups, who oppose the practice force-feeding of ducks and geese to produce foie gras, hailed the decision, critics derided it, calling it a case of government intrusion into the dining room. While some chefs introduced so-called foie substitutes, others openly flouted the law, keeping foie gras on their menus.
Not surprisingly, foie gras lovers hailed the repeal. “Justice has been done,” said Ariane Daguin, owner of specialty foods purveyor D’Artagnan, which supplies foie gras to restaurants and gourmet stores. “We’ve been lobbying hard for this for the last two years.”
Chef Rick Tramonto of Grand Award-winning Tru wasted no time after receiving news of Wednesday’s vote. “I immediately put [foie gras] back on the menu,” said the chef, who said he began serving it Wednesday night, just hours after the vote. Chef Martial Nougier of one sixtyblue, who said that during the ban he would verbally offer foie gras to regular customers in the dining room as an off-the-menu special, was also quick to return it to his printed menu. “I sold 10 portions with rhubarb and lemon confit [on Wednesday], and I expect to sell 30 portions this weekend,” said Nougier, whose predictions, he said, are based on the presence of thousands of food and wine professionals in Chicago this weekend for the National Restaurant Show.
Alderman Moore’s office did not respond to requests for comment, but Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, expressed disappointment in a statement on his blog, which a Society spokesman said would serve as the organization’s statement on the issue. “Mayor Daley has shamed Chicago with his action, and the City Council exhibited not only a lack of compassion, but also a failure of resolve and fortitude,” wrote Pacelle, adding, “We’ll be following up.”
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