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."
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.
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.
The foie gras crackdown is beginning. The first restaurant in Chicago to receive a ticket - and a $250 fine - for "serving" foie gras was none other than Hot Doug's, a gourmet sausage store / hot dog joint. Well known for their eclectic menu, they serve up dishes such as "Gyros Sausage with Creme Fraiche Tzatziki, Kalamata Olives and Sun-Dried Tomato Feta Cheese" ($6.00) as well as "The Virgil 'the Turk' Sollozzo Italian Sausage: Leave the gun, take the sausage" which sells for $2.75.
Restaurants all around the Windy City have been receiving warnings about serving the fatty liver since the ban went into effect last August, Hot Doug's certainly being no exception. In fact, they framed their warning letter with pride and placed it by the cash register for everyone to see. Many restaurants even threw caution to the wind over New Year's and openly served it, claiming the "holidays just wouldn't be the same without a little fattened liver."
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.
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.
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