We'll Take the Bullshit Law with a Secret Side of FG

By Laura Oppenheimer in Food on Aug 22, 2007 3:30PM

It is difficult to believe it has been a year since Chicago outlawed selling foie gras in the city. Judging from the number of times we've written about it, the last twelve months have been interesting ones for the much-maligned/celebrated product. Perhaps what is most interesting, according to Phil Vettel in today's Trib, is that a year later, it really isn't so difficult to find foie gras in the city.

Vettel writes, "But driving the expensive ingredient from the city's restaurant menus is not the same as keeping it off the plates. Aficionados can still dine on foie gras, if they know where to look."

And really, you don't even need to know where to look. Chicagoist has been surprised multiple times in the past year to see it on a menu. Many chefs aren't even hiding their use of it.

Copperblu is still serving its "It Ain't Foie Gras No Moore," duck liver terrine, and Bin 36 offers it up on a salad, advising diners that the foie gras part of the dish "is on us". Other restaurants, we learned, have been serving it as part of a complimentary amuse bouche. Perhaps our favorite advertisement of foie gras on a menu comes courtesy of DeLaCosta. The way they listed it on their menu, the foie gras was gratis, while the accoutrement listed below—garnish, some fruit-based spread, toast—was a pricey $16.

The Department of Public Health is in charge of enforcing the ban. "We wouldn't shed any tears if [the law was repealed]," Department of Public Health spokesman Tim Haddac told the Trib."From the get-go, we've said that the law, however noble in its intention, has nothing to do with our core mission, which is to protect the health of the public. And every hour we spend on foie gras is an hour we don't spend protecting people against food-borne illnesses."

Which restaurants have you spotted featuring some type of complimentary foie gras?