California ban on foie gras lifted, local spot already has celebration menu in place. (Plus weed and moonshine.)

It’s the ol’ game of duck, duck, no duck, duck.

California famously outlawed engorged duck liver, aka foie gras, in 2012, because of the scary sounding phenomenon of the force-feeding it includes.

That makes it an easy target for shallow rants like a recent Gawker piece that calls people who eat it assholes without doing any research into how the duck experiences it.

As I wrote in my discussion of the ban, "A look ahead at 2012 (Part One): The Foie Gras Ban": 

It appears patently cruel: Force feeding a duck so its liver gets abnormally fatty and gourmands can indulge in the uniquely flavorful results.

Part of that evaluation, though, comes from a very human tendency: Our need to anthropomorphize everything to understand it.

I mean, we instinctively reason, who do you know that would be stoked to have, say, Cheez-Its rammed down her gullet?

There is a difference that bears a mention, though, just as the controversy deserves more consideration than a gut reaction.

I'm not endorsing foie gras—only a few preps have done it for me anyway—but I was surprised to find how little some of the simple, relevant facts circulate: Ducks are natural gorgers who swallow food whole without chewing, who are essentially tube fed by their parents as babies, and who have no nerve endings in their throats.

Now it's back, and local chefs are stoked.

•••

Back when the law came into being, one of my favorite renegade chefs called me to arrange a clandestine meeting at the much-missed Independent Marketplace farmers market paradise in Sand City.

As I detail in "Underground foie gras-marijuana-moonshine appetizer rules," he brought me a $1,225 snack with quality pot, Apple Pie Ridge moonshine and foie on buttermilk-bread toast.

The kicker, according to the note he included:

"The food cost $25. The fine for the foie, which was banned July 1 in California, would cost $1,000. The fine for the Mary Jane would run $100. Same for the moonshine."

"Isn't it a sad commentary," chef told me later, "when the penalty for a food product like foie gras carries a 10 times higher fine than fresh herb and moonshine?"

•••

Yesterday a federal judge overturned the state's ban on the sale of the fatty duck and goose liver.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson found that the federal government's authority to regulate poultry products overrides the state law, and permanently blocked California's attorney general from laying down the duck law.

Opponents of the dish quickly asked Attorney General Kamala Harris to appeal.

Locally, foie gras-favoring chefs and restaurateurs are already flying high, including Stephan Lemaire of Andre's Bouchee (626-7880). 

"Now I can throw it back all over the menu without feeling I'm doing something illegal!" he writes by email. "I really never cared about the law because Andre would have continued serving it if he was still alive. Now I hope people spend more time minding there own business and not what others are eating.

"Fight fast food or meat injected with hormones!"

With Chef Jacques Zagouri, he's already arranged the Welcome Back Mr. Foie Dinner ($120) for Thursday, Jan 29, at Andre’s Bouchee in Carmel, with each dish paired with Oh Wines.

One the menu: foie gras terrine with Périgord truffle, seared foie gras with apple and Calvados sauce, monkfish stuffed with foie and filet mignon with foie gras and truffle sauce, with a foie gras macaroon to wrap the evening.

Chef Jeffrey Weiss of jennini kitchen + wine bar (920-2662) adds this via email:

On the one hand, as a chef I'm thrilled that the yoke of this activist-centric, weak-willed-politician-sponsored, knee-jerk reactionary, non-sensical bullshit law is off of our collective necks.

After a lot of personal research including visits to Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the now-defunct Sonoma Foie Gras, talks with the Daguin family (of D'Artagnan, one of the largest foie importers), and with Eduardo Sousa in Spain as part of Charcuteria: The Soul of Spain (Eduardo practices non-gavage foie gras), I decided that the practice of cultivating foie gras was not a detrimental act provided that I purchased it through an ethical farmer.

This pretty much speaks to the ethos of any chef—whether we are talking about fava beans or foie gras—which is why we happily served foie for the past several months at jeninni kitchen + wine bar in the form of foie gras hot dogs, foie terrines, and roasted potatoes w/ foie fat + truffles.

All of these dishes are going to be available on a special menu for the immediate future—let's celebrate a great victory for all of us, and raise a glass to chefs like Ken Frank, Doug Keane, David Bazirgan, and Ariane Daguin who never stopped fighting the good fight.