Animal rights activists plan to disrupt Providence dinner, foie gras menu

 

Animal rights activists plan to march outside Providence restaurant Tuesday night, protesting a menu at a special fundraising dinner that is slated to include foie gras.

The restaurant is holding a fundraising dinner in honor of the Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation, which selects and supports the American team that competes in the Bocuse d'Or, the international culinary competition named after chef Paul Bocuse, and considered the food world's version of the Olympics. Providence chef Michael Cimarusti is a culinary councilmember of Bocuse d'Or USA. According to the restaurant's website, the menu for the event -- tickets cost $150 per person -- will feature several noted L.A. chefs offering their interpretations of Bocuse's signature dishes. Among the multi-course menu items: duck stuffed with foie gras.

Providence co-owner and general manager Donato Poto said he was surprised to learn of the protest, but added that the menu would stand.

San Diego attorney and animal rights activist Bryan Pease issued a press release late Sunday night announcing that the Animal Protection & Rescue League would protest the appearance of foie gras on the menu. 

But there is another target, too: Legendary chef Thomas Keller. A mentor and champion to American chefs competing in the Bocuse d'Or, Keller has been the subject of similar protests because he continues to serve foie gras at his celebrated restaurants.

A phone call to Pease's office was not immediately returned. But the press release outlined activists' concerns about the controversial process often used to make foie gras. The press release says that other notable chefs, such as Wolfgang Puck and Charlie Trotter, have sworn off foie gras for good, and the activists want the rest of the food world to follow.

Contacted at Providence Monday morning, Poto said he hadn't heard of protest plans. "You are the first person to tell me that.... There's nothing I can do about it, they have a right to do that," he said of protesters. He added that he had no plans to change the menu. "Foie gras has been on menus for hundreds of years."

Pease's press released promises that about 50 protesters will be on hand to do all they can to spoil the appetites of would-be diners. Headlined "Dinner-goers will have to duck activists crying 'fowl' over force feeding," the press release says that protesters will display "large graphic banners depicting the torture of animals they have documented inside 'foie gras' farms."

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

File photo: Providence restaurant. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

 

Comments

[kevinEats]

Here's the full report from Tuesday--great meal, foie gras and all: http://www.kevineats.com/2010/11/bocuse-dor-usa-benefit-dinner-los.html

[Jessica Schlueter]

Dear Dr. Rosset,
Your comment is so ridden with inaccuracies I'm not even sure where to start. I guess I'll begin with "they just want your money". I'm sorry, I don't recall ever seeing an animal rights protest in which the activists are asking for money. Were they holding signs that said "Boycott Foie Gras, Contribute Cash Here!" ?? To my understanding, this was a compassionate group of concerned citizens who were by no means entirely vegan (just like the anti-veal movement, this is a group of people who are more concerned with banning barbaric torture practices than they are with absolutely eliminating meat consumption). No one was asking for cash or donations, nor were they even associating themselves with one specific animal rights group.

Secondly, in no way does the treatment of ducks and geese in foie gras factories even closely replicate the conditions in which they would live in the wild. You cannot honestly tell me that you don't think it's abusive to shove a metal rod down an animal's throat to fill it with food? There is a reason that California has banned Foie Gras from 2012 on. If you would like to be further educated on the subject, please visit stopforcefeeding.com. Undercover footage cannot be fabricated- it is fact.

I truly cannot imagine how people like you, who attempt to defend this unnecessary and abusive behavior, are able to sleep at night.

[Charlie]

Fois Gras is delicious!

[Letting People Know]

Dirty hippies!!! Let bygones be bygones and roll on a grass hill while singing Grateful Dead songs and dousing each other in patchouli oil. With the price these places pay for Foie Gras, it probably is organic and all of that other stuff.

[Dr. Rosset]

Ducks fed in this manner do not suffer despite what the so called animal rights group members say. This is another attempt by these radical vegan pushers to interfere with the rights of other human beings. There would be no benefit to abusing these ducks. Animal rights radicals want no animals used for food so they call everything abuse from leaving toenails untrimmed to using a leash or crate to restrain a pet. Pay them no attention as their goal is to end the use of all animals for food, medicine, or companionship. The only reason this method was banned in other countries was that people did not know the process or that the birds do this naturally anyway to prepare for migration. They just passed these laws against it based upon the lies of the animal rights protestors. Not because it has even been proven to be cruel which it hasn't been proven. The birds could care less and in fact will put up their heads for the funnel of food to be inserted. If it hurt they would not do that. Its time for the public to become aware of the true goals of HSUS, PeTA and all radical animal rights movements. They just want to end the lives of all domestic animals by pushing a vegan diet which will also help to end the lives of our children. But more than that these people just want your money and they do nothing to help animals. Instead they make false charges and call everything abuse. They harass people who do know how to care for these animals and think its alright to lie about what is happening as long as they get their way. Feeding birds in this manner is no different than how the birds eat in the wild. It just makes eating less time consuming for the birds. It does not hurt nor is it any more painful than feeding an infant with a tube. You are just by passing the mouth and filling the stomach quickly and more often. Geese and ducks are omnivorous, and, like many birds, have expansive throats allowing them to store large amounts of food, either whole or pre-digested, in the crop, an enlarged portion of the esophagus, while awaiting digestion in the stomach, similar to python feeding. In the wild this dilation allows them to swallow large foodstuffs, such as a whole fish, for a later, long digestion. Wild geese may consume 300 grams of protein and another 800 grams of grasses per day. Farmed geese allowed to graze on carrots adapt to eat 100 grams of protein, but may consume up to 2500 grams of the carrots per day. A wild duck may double its weight in the autumn, storing fat throughout much of its body and especially on the liver, in preparation for winter migration. So in fact the farmer is only doing what the duck would do in the wild if it could get the feed easily. If the duck or goose has too much the enlarged portion of the esophagus would expel the food. So you cannot over feed them anyway. You are just increasing their intake as they naturally do for migration. These birds fatten themselves in preparation for migration and their livers are always larger just before migration. In fact studies show that many birds right before migration have body fat and livers much larger than those being prepared for foie gras.

[Jan]

Force feeding ducks to enlarge their livers to 12 times their normal size is so cruel it has been banned in 15 countries! California law makes production or sale of foie gras by force feeding illegal starting in 2012. I'm sure these creative chefs can find something else to serve that does not involve so much animal cruelty.