Chef Tweet of the Week: Whale Veal?!

By Anthony Todd in Food on Apr 16, 2012 5:20PM

This is really the Chef Tweet of last week, but it was too good to pass up. Paul Kahan, chef/owner of Blackbird, Avec, The Publican and Publican Quality Meats, tweeted one calm night last week, and the internet exploded.

"Come get fresh whale veal at publican quality meats! It's amazing. Only $49.95 per pound!"

We giggled, assuming Kahan was playing a joke on us. After all, he's one of the most ardent advocates for sustainable meat in Chicago, and we can hardly imagine him on the bow of a ship spearing baby animals with a harpoon. On the other hand, whale would give whole-animal in-house butchering an entirely new meaning and scale.

Some people bought it, at least enough to be shocked. The next day Kahan gave up the ruse: "I was just fooling about whale veal. Isn't twitter fun?" We only wish we'd thought of this for April Fool's Day.