The Joy Of Eating Endangered Species

Subject: The Joy Of Eating Endangered Species Tue Oct 14, 2014 8:44 pm

Chefs Fight for Songbird

The Ortolan: A Tiny Bird as a French Cause Célèbre

The Joy Of Eating Endangered Species Jp-ORTOLAN2-master675

PARIS — The menu at Les Prés d’Eugénie, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in the bucolic Landes region of southwest France, reads like a decadent litany of the terroir: truffle blini in a silky galette; toasted pigs’ feet with smoked eel; verveine soufflé scented with citronnelle.

But the chef, Michel Guérard, says that one essential dish is missing: the ortolan, a tiny songbird that gourmands, including former President François Mitterrand, used to covet, consuming the head, bones and body in a single, steaming mouthful, while covering their faces with a white napkin to conceal the act.

Now, Mr. Guérard and three other celebrity chefs who hail from southwest France — Alain Ducasse, Jean Coussau and Alain Dutournier — are trying to engineer a public comeback for the ortolan, an overhunted species that France banished from restaurant menus in 1999. If they get their way, the forbidden food will be legally offered to napkin-wearing diners at restaurants in Landes for one weekend a year — the gastronomic equivalent of a visitation from the holy grail.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/dining/the-ortolan-a-tiny-songbird-as-a-french-cause-celebre.html

The Joy Of Eating Endangered Species

Chefs Fight for Songbird

The Joy Of Eating Endangered Species

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