Foie Gras

[awbrig]

How do you feel about Chef Charlie Trotter deciding to not serve foie gras at the restaurant any longer? Are there any foods you consider, for humane reasons or other reasons, not to serve in your cuisine? Thx

[chefg]

Awbrig:

Chef Trotter's decision to eliminate foie gras from his menu is interresting to me for a numbers of reasons. Chef Trotter exposed the "French model" to a specific generation of chefs here in the US starting in the early 90's. Through his cuisine, personality of the restaurant, and PR, he shaped the way alot of chefs in this country cook . He has always been associated with luxury ingredients, and uses them generously, foie gras included, as you will see them prolificly throughout his books and piled on his plates at the restaurant.

If chef Trotter has decided to quit using foie gras for animal rights issues you have to respect that. Will he no longer use caviar due to it's reputation as well? Time will tell. Charlie Trotter has one of the strongest voices in the industry, he has shaped the culinary landscape greatly in his time. His push for the raw food movement , this statement about foie gras, and any other that will follow will be not taken lightly by his peers.

This brings up an interesting question. When diners patron restaurants at the high end, with high price tags, do they expect expensive ingredients? When you dine at The French Laundry, Trotter's, Daniel and so on do you expect, or even demand luxury ingredients? Would you be dissappointed if caviar, truffles, foie were not present on their menus? The key questions for me is what is innovation worth? What is the value for creativity, if it does not utilize the luxury ingredients? At Trio we present osetra, foie, and truffles in new and unusual ways, but what if we didn't use those products? Could we charge the same amount for our tasting menu?

There are ingredients which we refuse to serve, but it has more to do with integredity of the product rahter than humane issues.