Chefs in stew over foie gras
Some rethink menu after violence over controversial fare

Kim Severson
San Fransico Chronicle
Friday, August 22, 2003

Elite Bay Area chefs, stunned by the vandalism directed at one of their San Francisco colleagues who serves foie gras, are taking a serious look at what's on the menu.

Despite being frightened by the attacks, many chefs who offer the French delicacy told The Chronicle on Thursday that they plan to continue listing it on their menus -- almost as an act of defiance.

Others acknowledged that the furor over foie gras has rekindled concerns about the way some animals are raised for the table, prompting them to review the food they offer.

As reported Tuesday, authorities have blamed radical animal rights groups for a series of attacks in recent weeks on Aqua chef Laurent Manrique, damaging his car, his Mill Valley home and his foie gras shop in Sonoma.

Whether fearful or angry, Manrique's professional colleagues say the situation has made it clear that writing a menu is becoming a political act.

Dan Scherotter, chef of Palio d'Asti in San Francisco's Financial District, announced on Thursday a special menu featuring the luxury item as an in-your- face move directed at the vandals.

"The fact that people would terrorize a chef for doing something that is absolutely legal and not understand how foie gras is really made is ridiculous, " said Scherotter, who has in the past received calls from animal rights activists angry that he serves veal.

"I'm against any sort of Puritan gestures. People get to choose what they want to do -- eat foie gras, have abortions, read and write whatever they want. "

On the other side are chefs like Jardiniere's Traci Des Jardins, who said she will discontinue her signature foie gras and see how customers respond. Although she, like many chefs, wonders if her restaurant will be the next target, Des Jardins says her decision is not about fear. Ever since she visited a foie gras farm in 1995, Des Jardins said she's been "haunted by the image of those ducks."

Foie gras is made by overfeeding ducks or geese to fatten the liver. In the last two weeks of their lives, extra grain is poured through tubes inserted in the birds' throats. The entire process mimics a natural gorging some migrating waterfowl engage in before they begin long flights.

FBI agents are calling repeated acts of vandalism a case of domestic terrorism, directed against Manrique and his partners, who run a small Central Valley farm where ducks are raised for foie gras.

In the past few weeks, vandals have attacked the men's homes and cars, spray painting messages like "foie gras is animal torture" and "stop or be stopped."

They left a threatening videotape of Manrique's family filmed through the window of his home, warning that he was being watched. In the latest incident last week, vandals flooded a Sonoma foie gras restaurant and shop the men planned to open in September. Police estimate the damage at more than $60,000.

Chef Jen Koide at Cinq in Corte Madera was shocked that a chef would be singled out for violence simply because of a menu item. She uses foie gras, even though she chooses some organic produce and avoids certain fish that are in danger of being overharvested.

"For me, it's such a key ingredient in French cuisine, I wouldn't even think about not using it," she said. And for the French-born Manrique, she said, foie gras is part of his heritage. "Besides, is foie gras any more cruel than feedlots? I don't see that it is."

Larry Bain, who manages Jardiniere and Acme Chop House, says that with some food items, it is easy for a chef to offer a more environmentally and politically appealing alternative. For example, getting meat from ranchers who use humane practices or caviar from Sacramento River sturgeon instead of the threatened Caspian Sea fish.

"But with foie gras, what can you substitute? What else can you serve that has that same sense of elegance and luxury?" he said.

Bain has had run-ins with animal rights activists earlier this month when he arranged dinner and panel showcasing humanely raised pork. Activists sent him a barrage of e-mails arguing if he wanted to be humane he shouldn't serve pork at all.

Even though foie gras has a long history on French tables, it became commonplace on high-end menus in the Bay Area only in the 1990s, fueled in part by the free-spending dot-com boom. At San Francisco's Restaurant Gary Danko, foie gras remains because diners expect it, just like they expect Danko's signature lobster preparations, he said.

"As a chef, it is not my job or my intention to tell people what to eat," Danko said.

But he, like many other chefs, increasingly finds himself having to make political decisions, whether it's about how to raise the pay standards and working conditions in his kitchen, or which charitable events to support or, as in the case of foie gras, what to put on the plate.

"Chefs are kind of like politicians now," he said.

And, as is the case with Manrique, that means being prepared to take hits from political extremists.

"I worry about it every day, regardless of this latest case. Look at the Starbucks thing," Danko said, referring to a recent case of vandalism against several Bay Area coffee shops. "People are acting because they feel there are social injustices."

And, several chefs pointed out, it's hard to get the staff behind a foie gras ban. It's a high-ticket item, which translates into bigger tips.

Manrique remains worried. His home address and phone number have appeared on the Animal Liberation Front Web site. On Bite Back, a Web magazine that posted an account of the Sonoma foie gras shop attack, activists said, ominously, that they found the addresses and phone numbers of several people involved in the Sonoma shop project.

FBI spokeswoman LaRae Quy, whose said the agency is working with police in Sonoma and Marin counties, asks anyone with any information about the attacks to contact local law enforcement.