Roger Moore as James Bond. Photo: ZUMA Press.

Oh James!

It turns out one of Her Majesty's secret agents lived the high life only in the movies. The James Bond of the 1970s, Roger Moore, won't eat foie gras, and he won't speak to friends who do either.

"Before I knew how it was produced I would often pick at it at parties just because it was on offer -- though I never ate too much of it because of its huge calorific content," he writes Tuesday in an op-ed in the Daily Mail. "Since I have understood the cruelty attached to its production I have never touched it again. I now boycott restaurants where it is served."

Raj Vaidya. Photo: Michael Harlan Turkell

In a career that has included wine jobs at haute dining and wine destinations Per Se, Cru and, since June, the head sommelier at Daniel Boulud's flagship New York eatery Daniel, Raj Vaidya has paired more than his share of his duck with vino.

Born in Jersey, and raised in his parents' native Bombay and Singapore, Raj's wine tutelage began well before he was of legal drinking age, enjoying vino and good food with family and company. It laid the groundwork for post-college (a degree in political science and philosophy from Rutgers University) career in the wine business, where he first started working at New Jersey's Ryland Inn and did time in the biodynamic fields at Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa.

As fall quickly approaches, we caught up with Raj to discuss the different elements one needs to consider when pairing wine with all those preparations of this wonderfully fatty, gamey bird, creamy foie gras and bloody duck à la presse.

Passion fruit. Photo: Andréia, Flickr

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• A talk with Mark Caro, author of "The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fight," about the ethics of consuming the controversial delicacy.
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Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's. Photo: William Couch/ Flickr.

Frankfurter maestro Doug Sohn, the man behind the beloved Chicago eatery Hot Doug's, is a stickler for putting the same care into his hot dog toppings that a top chef would a béarnaise sauce.

"Whatever you pair, you want it to taste good," he says. "We caramelize our onions in real butter. We get the freshest tomatoes."

Sohn is a trained chef who bypassed life in a haute restaurant to grill haute dogs. He's been on the wiener beat for nearly a decade, and remains an undeterred champion of foie gras in the wake of a since-overturned Chicago-wide ban. His sought-after pups feature tantalizing names like the "mighty hot" Keira Knightley and the "mighty, might, mighty hot!" Salma Hayek andouille sausage.

With grills heating up for the Fourth of July, here are Sohn's thoughts on how to spruce up that old dog.

Sohn on bringing his own dogs to Cubs games and the awesomeness of foie gras franks after the jump.

According to recent reports and contrary to popular belief, French people can, and do, get fat. In fact, the French government is worried enough about the problem that they're considering raising taxes on food that are higher fat, sugar, and salt.

According to this report on MSNBC.com, the French government has been worried about obesity, especially childhood obesity, for a while now. Some campaigns they've tried in the past have been to encourage commuters to take the stairs instead of the escalator and to put prominent warnings on junk food packaging.

With a huge hole in the state health care budget to plug,though, some officials want to put higher taxes on unhealthy foods. The question that remains to be answered is, what constitutes "unhealthy"? Will the new taxes, up to 19.6% from 5.5%, apply only to processed junk food with high fat and sugar contents? Or will Frances traditional high fat cheeses and foie gras be included?

These questions are yet to be decided, but I personally cannot see the French government slapping high taxes on traditional foods for which the country is famous. How will it look when the French can't even afford their own cheese? Not only that, as Elastic Waistband points out, taxes don't dissuade that many people from doing, or eating, exactly what they want. Do you think the French government will put high taxes on its traditional foods?

Maryland state legislators have stepped away from a bill that could have banned foie gras in the state. Key legislators withdrew support after the bill's hearing March 4th, despite a legion of animal rights activists pushing for the bill. Apparently, the legislators decided that it was not their place to intervene.

Maryland isn't the first state to toy with the idea of banning foie gras -- similar battles have been staged in Philadelphia, Chicago (which successfully banned it) and California (where selling or raising it will be illegal by 2012). Anyone care to weigh in -- should governments step in to ban foie gras?

Just before New Year's Eve we learned from Nicole that several eateries in the Windy City intended to transform themselves into duckeasies to ring in the new year. That's right, they planned on serving foie gras in spite of the city's recent ban on the sale of the luxurious liver.

Yesterday I read that several Chicago restaurants and specialty markets are continuing to flout the ban. At Hot Doug's, a gourmet sausage store, the owner continues to sell foie gras and has framed his warning letter as a point of pride.

While some restaurants such as Sweets & Savories continue to openly sell foie gras, others have devised creative ways to fly under the radar as it were. Rumor has it that ordering the "special lobster" at several restaurants will help you score a plate of the banned delicacy.

And the award for the most straightforward way to skirt the ban goes to Bin 36, which also has the dubious honor of being the only eatery inspected to date. It seems the restaurant wasn't actually selling foie gras, it was giving it away. Well, not quite giving it away. The menu offered a complimentary foie gras terrine with its wild mushroom confit salad. The inspectors neglected to ask whether the salad would cost as much without the terrine. As anyone who's ever purchased any foie gras can tell you, it wouldn't.

Say it ain't so. Scant weeks after the furor over New York City's proposed ban on trans fats, a small movement to ban foie gras arose in my fair city. Thankfully, Gotham has not yet followed in Chicago's footsteps.

Earlier this week Alan Gerson, a member of the New York City Council, decided not to introduce legislation that would keep the luscious fatty liver out of markets and restaurants. He held off on the ban pending further investigation. One can only hope that his research includes the ingestion of a lobe or three and a bottle of Sauternes.

For the record, the proposal for the ban came from League of Humane Voters of New York City. I'm still not entirely sure that foie gras is inhumane toward geese, but these days I'm starting to side with my fellow gourmands. My stance is partly due to an open letter regarding the proposed ban. Granted the detailed and well-argued missive comes from Ariane Daguin, the founder and owner of D'Artagnan. That aside, I'm with Gerson. Further investigation is required. I intend to start with my evening repast.

[via: Gothamist]

Appreciating sushi involves a learning curve for non-Japanese. I know that's an obvious statement just as sure as I know I still haven't yet crested that subtle, briny wave. After I realized sushi has nothing to do with Philadelphia rolls and such, things got interesting. I learned that if you ask your sushi chef what's in season, you'll be richly rewarded.

Yesterday was a perfect example. For weeks I'd been inquiring about ankimo, since I know it's available in the fall. I was pleased to hear that I happened to visit my local spot on the first day this year that they were serving what many call the foie gras of the sea.

Ankimo, or monkfish liver, with its pink to orange color and rich melting texture, is very much like foie gras and has scarcely any oceanic flavor . It also has the distinction of coming from one of the gnarliest looking fish out there. The liver is prepared by first steaming, then chilling and finally slicing it up. It's dressed with ponzu sauce and perhaps some spicy roe. I usually order ankimo sashimi, so I can get an opulent portion.

Last year I was lucky enough to sit down at the sushi bar just as they were about to chill the warm ankimo. The owner bestowed a few slices on me. The warm, creamy liver melted on my tongue evoking a swoonworthy memory of the first time I tried foie gras. Oishii!

Assemblywoman Joan Voss is disgusted by foie gras.

But she doesn't want to go the way of Chicago and ban the sale and serving of it. Voss simply wants to regulate how it's produced. She wrote a bill that would prohibit farmers from force-feeding ducks and geese through tubes. "I don't care if people eat it. My bill just says produce it in a humane way."

Such a regulation doesn't go without opponents. Foie gras distributors in New Jersey would lose millions of dollars in sales.

Chicago's foie gras ban went into effect last week (and has already had its first violation!). Philadelphia and New York state officials have also discussed outlawing production and sales. California currntly has a ban on force-feeding poultry.

Chicago's ban against the sale of foie gras has been in effect for just one week, and one chef has already been given a warning for a violation of the ban. Chef Rick Spiros, from the restaurant Block 44, served eight orders of foie gras on Friday night simply to use up several "leftover" pieces of the expensive stuff. The violation was discovered when an anonymous caller tipped off city officials, but Spiros says that it was a "one-time thing" - unless the injunction seeking to stop enforcement of the law takes effect and restaurants are permitted to serve the delicacy again.

If the restaurant receives a second violation, they will be forced to pay a fine.

Chicago's mayor isn't the only one questioning that city's ban on foie gras, which took effect August 23rd. A plan to file an injunction against the ban is afoot and some of the city's French chefs have been holding fundraising dinners.

The Illinois Restaurant Association has joined forces with chef Allen Sternweiler to seek a permanent injunction that would block enforcement of the ban. The group believes that since no foie gras is produced in Chicago, the city's jurisdictional rights are shaky. The assocation estimates that the annual economic losses caused by the ban of the delicacy could amount to as much as $16 million.

French chef Didier Durand hosted a special foie gras dinner at $149 per plate to raise funds to pay legal expenses. The dinner held at his restaurant Cyrano's Bistrot & Wine Bar raised about $8,000.

Yesterday, August 22nd, was the last day that foie gras was served in Chicago without penalty to restaurateurs. All across the city, diners were savoring their last few bites of the rich, fatty delicacy that could be purchased within the city limits.

And instead of expressing resignation, people are still worked up over the ban. Chicago Mayor Daley, who had a change to veto the ban but did not take it, wants the City Council to reconsider and says that he won't push for aggressive enforcement of the law. Daley asserts that only a handful of restaurants even serve the food, though other sources note that even a number of "downscale" places added it to their menus, making the total higher than Daley's guess of 5 or 6 restaurants.

The city council has no intention of repealing the ban, according to Alderman Joe Moore, especially because they are not alone in banning foie gras, joining ten European countries and California that have total or partial bans on the manufacture and sale of the delicacy. Alderman also notes that the Mayor cannot "pick and choose which laws to enforce," so the ban will receive the same attention as other matters.

For those still looking to get a taste of foie gras in Chicago, chef Tony Mantuano at Spiaggia is serving up a vegetarian version "made from chickpeas, vin santo and olive oil, among other ingredients" on crostini. At Tru, the caviar lounge is serving a "faux gras" made with chicken liver.

Wine blogger Dr. Vino has a fascinating, insightful account of a tour he took of a foie gras producer in France's Dordogne region last month. Now before anyone jumps down my throat, let me say that I've had the pleasure of eating foie gras only once or twice. And in all honesty I'm a bit conflicted as to whether force feeding geese in order to fatten their livers is indeed cruel or, rather, as some have told me, a process for which they greedily line up.

It remains to be seen whether I'll ever tour a foie gras operation, but one thing I do know is that the good doctor had the nerve and intellectual curiousity to tour one such farm while the rest of his family opted for a swim. Among the issues Dr. Vino raises are the relatively pleasant conditions the geese enjoy while they are outside in two large fields as opposed to the darkened gavage barns where they are force-fed four times daily. Even he seems uncertain as to just how cruel the process is. But in the end he concludes that it's probably best for all to know where their food comes from, foie gras or otherwise.

If you've already decided that foie gras isn't for you, then Michael Ruhlman's recent post on megnut probably isn't going to change your mind. If, however, you're undecided about the stuff, or (gasp) a fan, then by all means this is worth reading. Even with phrases like "pluck out any large dark veins," or "spread out the lobes," Ruhlman makes the fatted liver sound damn tasty, especially with scrambled eggs or soaked in milk and then poached. He also makes the point that, unlike most other high-end products, the foie gras available to the average consumer is likely of the same grade as the stuff available to most chefs because there are only a few suppliers in the U.S. Note that Tony Bourdain gives Ruhlman the atta-boy in the lengthy and worth-reading series of comments that follow the post.