I've been pondering this question ever since I ate a lovely plate of truffle-salt-cured foie gras over brioche at Corner House, which I review this week.
See also: - Corner House: Chef Matt Selby has found a home in Jefferson Park - Photos: A closer look at Corner House - 100 Favorite Dishes: Foie gras oysters from Sushi Sasa
Like veal, foie gras isn't just food, it's culinary politics. Given its propensity to polarize a table, I'd put foie gras up there with discussions of immigration and abortion as something to avoid with in-laws or on a first date.
The controversy lies in the feeding practice that leads to those fattened goose or duck livers, a practice that can involve feeding tubes and charges of inhumanity. Matt Selby, like many other conscientious chefs around the world, sources his foie gras from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, a 200-acre farm in New York he's toured twice. The facility takes pride in caring for its ducks, treating them humanely by keeping them cage-free and feeding them by hand.
But if you're not already a foie gras fan, is that enough to change your mind? Or is fattened duck liver too hard to swallow -- humanely raised ducks or not?
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