News

Restaurants being urged to drop foie gras

Wed, Mar. 02, 2005
DAN NEPHIN
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH - When it comes to foie gras, some restaurants are finding their goose is cooked.

The delicacy - pronounced "fwah grah" and French for fat liver - has been the subject of protests in New York, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore., among other places. Last year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation to end the force feeding of ducks, geese and other birds to produce foie gras by 2012.

The fight has come to Pittsburgh, where an animal rights group said it has persuaded about 10 restaurants to stop serving foie gras, though some of those restaurant owners said they aren't committed to a permanent boycott.

If people knew how foie gras was made, opponents say, they wouldn't eat it.

Though wild ducks and geese will occasionally gorge themselves, commercial foie gras is made by force-feeding birds through a tube placed down their esophagus until their livers enlarge to many times their natural size.

Candice Zawoiski, coordinator of Voices for Animals of Western Pennsylvania's Foie Gras-Free Pittsburgh, said the group began its campaign after seeing a documentary by Washington-based GourmetCruelty.com. The movie was shot undercover at foie gras farms in New York and California; two of the group's members pleaded guilty Nov. 30 to criminal trespass for filming at Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, N.Y.

The birds are kept in unhealthy conditions and the product is the "diseased liver of an actively tortured animal," said Sarahjane Blum, a spokeswoman for GourmetCruelty.com.

Voices for Animals sends restaurants letters and images of foie gras production, hoping that will persuade them to stop, Zawoiski said. If that doesn't work, they protest outside restaurants.

Rich and buttery, foie gras is often served sliced and pan-seared, frequently with fruit or atop greens or a cut of steak or veal. It can also be served in a mousse.

Le Pommier, a French restaurant in the city's South Side neighborhood, removed foie gras from its menu. Co-owners Mark Collins and Jeremy Carlisle, however, say the decision wasn't as black-and-white as Voices for Animals claims and that their menu changes frequently.

"We had never said we were not going to put it back on the menu," Collins said.

Kevin Joyce, owner of the Carlton Restaurant, said the group protested outside his restaurant and that he removed foie gras from his menu. He said it was not because of the protest, but because of the video. He refused to sign the pledge the group wanted him to sign.

Robert Uricchio, owner of Laforet in Pittsburgh, said the group wants him to sign an oath not to serve it at his restaurant. He refuses, saying the group's claims of animal abuse are vague.

"Raising chickens and livestock, you could say it's all cruel," Uricchio said.

Laforet isn't offering foie gras as part of its current menu, although Voices for Animals has been picketing regularly for the past several months, Uricchio said. He said foie gras will be on future menus.

Izzy Yanay, vice president of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, disputes that the force feeding is painful.

"It's not causing them any kind of harm," Yanay said. "The people against us, they don't want to listen to that."

He also said his sales haven't been hurt by the protests.

"The only effect is, I have to answer a lot of e-mails and a lot of the press," said Yanay, adding that he gets a few "hate e-mails" daily.

"To us, they don't seem to be campaigns of reason ... they seem to be campaigns of intimidation," said Michael Ginor, the company's president, adding that if he were a restaurateur subject to such protests, he'd probably take foie gras off the menu, too.