Let them eat foie gras!
Barbara Revsin reports.
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Chicago—Robin Hood wasn't there. And neither, for that matter, were any other legendary renegades. Assembled, instead, in the 676 Restaurant & Bar in the Omni Chicago Hotel were a group of defiant gourmets raring to devour executive chef Robert Gadsby and chef de cuisine Michael Fusano's seven course Outlaw Dinner. Not since Adam and Eve have forbidden foods been so tempting.
Similar controversial feasts were held at Noe, Gadsby's restaurants in Houston and Los Angeles, where diners came dressed for a somewhat clandestine repast. But in Chicago, on the eve of the City Council's ban on foie gras scheduled to begin on August 22, the mood was more restrained.
A lifelong rebel, Gadsby says his Outlaw Dinners are a protest against government interference in food issues not related to safety or health. Since foie gras is only the latest in a series of food-centered controversies, he makes a point of including other ingredients that have caused a furor, such as absinthe, raw milk cheeses, hemp seed, and morels, as well as items prepared sous-vide.
The Chicago dinner kicked off with a lobster amuse bouche followed by foie gras three ways—wrapped in prosciutto, on toast topped with a quail egg, and dipped in white chocolate dusted with crushed cherry-flavored Pop Rocks. And for guests who still had a taste for the luxurious liver—and who didn't?—there was hot chocolate infused with foie gras and garnished with toasted marshmallows for dessert.
That same evening, Socca, a popular Lincoln Park bistro, hosted the third in a series of events organized by the Chicago Chefs for Choice, a not-for-profit chapter of the Illinois Restaurant Association. This time, the emphasis was solely on foie gras, just as it had been at the association's first dinner on Tuesday, July 11 at Allen's-The New American Café and at the second on Wednesday, August 16 at Cyrano's Bistrot & Wine Bar.
Led by Didier Durand (chef/owner of Cyrano's Bistrot and Café Simone) and Michael Tsonton (chef/partner of Copperblue), outraged chefs from the city and suburbs joined forces immediately after the proposed ban won a lopsided victory in the Chicago City Council on April 26. The ban makes it illegal for a restaurant to sell foie gras, although it doesn't preclude its sale at retail outlets. Neither does it make it illegal to sell the rest of the duck, which, as a result of its forced overindulgence, makes an especially tasty confit.
The first day of the ban was marked by widespread civil disobedience. With Chicago's Public Health Department turning a blind eye, foie gras was used in, on, and with everything from pizzas and sausages to sea scallops and soul food. By the second day, enforcement was a reality, and the atmosphere was more subdued. A lawsuit filed by Chefs for Choice the previous morning hadn't produced the hoped-for reversal of the ban, and the chefs braced for a prolonged battle.
Meanwhile, foie gras sales at suburban restaurants soared. Michael Maddox, chef/owner of Le Titi de Paris in Arlington Heights, and Michael Lachowicz, chef/owner of Michael's in Winnetka, both reported at least a 20 percent jump. Encouraged by the response, Lachowicz offered a prix-fixe, foie gras–focused menu in September, and Carlos and Debbie Nieto, owners of Carlos' in Highland Park, scheduled a foie gras dégustation as part of the restaurant's 25th anniversary celebration.
Future Outlaw Dinners were in the planning stages even before the second one took place, which was certainly good news for banker Tamora Rush-Kellett, a 35 year old Londoner who recently relocated to Chicago. So much did she enjoy the first dinner that she traveled to Los Angeles a week later to claim a seat at a similar event. Would she do it again? "Absolutely," she replies.
Should the Chicago City Council recant before the next Outlaw Dinner, Gadsby and Fusano planned on serving foie gras crème brûlée with Coca-Cola jelly for dessert. Rush-Kellett is, as she puts it, "jolly excited."
