PETAS faux gras stunt

January 6, 2009 on 1:59 pm | In Issues | Comments

This is a great video from Anthony Bourdain and No Reservations.

Again PETA is throwing money at the wrong thing offering someone the grand prize of $10,000 and their name for ever tied to this abomination vegetarian faux gras. Don’t get me wrong i love vegetables, but this is just to much. I have attached the rules and regulations to the contest, seeing as its such a great opportunity to stop such a tasty historical food from existing. So stay the fuck out of my stomach. Don’t worry folks the poor bastard who puts their name on this Faux Gras will go down in infamy.

Worldwide Challenge to Find the Perfect Humane Alternative to a Cruel Dish

For Immediate Release:
January 5, 2009

Contact:
Nicole Matthews 757-622-7382

The traditions of French food date back hundreds of years to a time long before legendary chef Georges Auguste Escoffier brought new life to the rich cuisine. Many of these recipes have long included ingredients that are obtained from animals. Many people, however, don’t eat these ingredients but still like to enjoy traditional dishes. And that’s exactly why we need you.

PETA is looking for the chef who can create the best recipe for purely vegetarian foie gras in our Fine Faux Foie Gras Challenge. The winner will be going home with a $10,000 award.

Goose Foie gras, French for “fatty liver,” is made from the enlarged livers of male ducks and geese.

Fine-dining patrons around the world have chosen to forgo real foie gras because of the cruelty to animals that results from force-feedings as well as the poor living conditions and environmental concerns that stem from foie gras production. And many restaurants have pulled the product from their menus entirely.

But just because gourmets choose to skip this “delicacy of despair” doesn’t mean they want to miss out on traditional French food. That’s why we are calling on chefs around the world to use their skills to create the first gourmet, purely vegetarian faux foie gras.

PETA is offering a $10,000 prize to the chef who is best at creating a purely vegetarian foie gras that is as close as possible in taste, texture, and form to real foie gras. The winning recipe must be featured on a fine-dining menu.

A judging panel chosen by PETA will assess the prepared recipes based on palatability as well as similarity in taste and texture to real foie gras. Submissions will receive scores on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 denoting an unpalatable item that tastes nothing like foie gras and 10 denoting a delicious item that is indistinguishable from foie gras).

All techniques are acceptable for creating the dish. It can come from a page of Larousse Gastronomique or from a page in the molecular gastronomy playbook of Grant Achatz and Wylie Dufresne. Anything goes as long as it’s 100 percent vegetarian.

And don’t forget to take credit for your delicious dish! Think “Waldorf Salad,” and name the recipe after yourself or your restaurant.

The grand prize of $10,000 will be awarded to one winner at an internationally publicized event, and two runners-up with the second- and third-highest scores will each receive $1,000 in kitchen equipment.

Read the complete rules and then submit your original recipe now

12 Responses to “PETAS faux gras stunt”

Evinfuilt says:

January 6, 2009 at 2:52 pm

I wish Bourdain had mentioned that the feeding process replicates the force feeding parents do to their ducklings shortly before travel (energy storage.) The idea came from a natural process (and the thick lining in the throat is there to protect the young from their parents bills.)
Whisperhand says:

January 6, 2009 at 8:13 pm

I agree with you wholeheartedly, but why should a religion be any different than an organization? If you want to eat it, eat it… I don’t believe the great “whatever” truly thinks that one animal is inherently more “evil” or unclean than another animal….

…except bears, bears are up to something; bank on it.
christopherpepe says:

January 7, 2009 at 6:41 am

Those birds have a lot more space than a typical factory chicken too. While I’m sure not all bird farms are the same D’Artagnan seems to treat their animals well. I would think PETA would do more good for more animals by focusing on the large factories rather than relatively small operations that treat their animals well. The quality people care a lot more about their animals lives (for great taste if nothing else) than the quantity people do.
Duck, Duck… Goose! « Save Your Fork… There’s Pie says:

January 7, 2009 at 2:01 pm

[...] San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino, who, to be fair, keeps a blog called Offal Good, seems particularly put out by the contest and what he perceives it could mean for foie gras producers… I have attached the rules and regulations to the contest, seeing as its such a great opportunity to … [...]
Phil says:

January 8, 2009 at 11:07 pm

PETA’s been on a roll lately. They tried this shit earlier in 2008, offering $1 Million to the first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/us/21meat.html

As if Chicken McNuggets weren’t enough.
Nick says:

January 11, 2009 at 11:36 am

So, in order to be fair and impartial, won’t the judges need to consume the same dish twice from each chef; once made with faux, and once with fois? Chris, perhaps you need to rethink your concerns about this contest and consider using it to your advantage. Just think, your culinary skills would be well employed in showing a Peta contest judge the error of his or her ways. What better way to shut Peta up than to get them to consume considerable quantities of the “delicacy of despair”?!
Sash says:

January 11, 2009 at 7:26 pm

What I want to know is how is PETA going to judge this. Presumably one has to know what fois gras taste like. Are they going to contract out the judging so as to preserve their own pure and ethically intact bodies? Incidentally Dan Barber has a fascinating discussion on Ted.com of “natural” fois gras being produced in Spain. Here is the <a href=”http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html” title=”link”).
Tags says:

January 12, 2009 at 10:22 am

PETA is wacky crackers. Like Paula Deen making faces from Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” video wacky crackers.

see for yourself

http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/index.asp
Feisty Bourbon Girl says:

January 26, 2009 at 2:42 pm

I lurrrrrrve me some foie gras so vurrrrah much :0) Why tangle with perfection? I agree, PETA is wacky crackers….
Hannah says:

March 4, 2009 at 3:30 pm

You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
LisaT says:

May 9, 2009 at 5:18 pm

I love food, including meat, but I do think we should do what we can not to inflict unnecessary pain or even discomfort upon the creatures that we eat. I don’t mind eating an animal, but I don’t want to make it suffer. Maybe if we ate LESS meat, we could treat that which we do eat with more care.
Amber says:

February 18, 2010 at 1:39 pm

Go fuck yourself, Bourdain. There’s a special place in hell for people like you.

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