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Chargement... The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fightpar Mark Caro
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Definitely an interesting read, but only 3 stars because I found myself skipping around the book. Caro breaks up his stories a bit -- kind of like what you find on TV shows with multiple story lines -- and I couldn't be bothered to wait until he decided to get back to the story I was interested in to finish it off (e.g. in one case I wanted to follow the story of the Chicago city council vote without having to wait a couple hundred pages for it to be resolved). I also would skip around because I wanted to read about specific chefs and their responses to the increasing pressure to ban foie gras (Bourdain has a limited role, but you'll find all sorts of Philadelphia and Chicago chefs mentioned). I think the only section that is relatively coherent is the long string of farms that he visits to describe the condition of the animals. So I limit my stars because I didn't like the book's structure -- an admittedly subjective opinion.But I liked reading the book and finding myself getting irritated by one side or the other, which was unexpected since I went into it thinking I was on the fence about the topic. I think I actually was just not very informed. And that's the result of this book. Caro, to my read, is not a proponent of either pro- or anti- foie gras, which is great. However, I did find that the book made me more "one side or the other" rather than "middle of the road" -- and in this case I think that polarization of the reader is a good thing. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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In announcing that he had stopped serving the fattened livers of force-fed ducks and geese at his world-renowned restaurant, influential chef Charlie Trotter heaved a grenade into a simmering food fight, and the Foie Gras Wars erupted. He said his morally minded menu revision was meant merely to raise consciousness, but what was he thinking when he also suggested -- to Chicago Tribune reporter Mark Caro -- that a rival four-star chef 's liver be eaten as "a little treat"? The reaction to Caro's subsequent front-page story was explosive, as Trotter's sizable hometown moved to ban the ancient delicacy known as foie gras while an international array of activists, farmers, chefs and politicians clashed forcefully and sometimes violently over whether fattening birds for the sake of scrumptious livers amounts to ethical agriculture or torture. "Take a dish with a funny French name, add ducks, top it all off with celebrity chefs eating each other's livers, and that's entertainment," Caro writes. Yet as absurd as battling over bloated waterfowl organs might seem, the controversy struck a serious chord even among those who had never tasted the stuff. Reporting from the front lines of this passionate dining debate, Caro explores the questions we too often avoid: What is an acceptable amount of suffering for an animal that winds up on our plate? Is a duck that lives comfortably for twelve weeks before enduring a few weeks of periodic force-feedings worse off than a supermarket broiler chicken that never sees the light of day over its six to seven weeks on earth? Why is the animal-rights movement picking on such a rarefied dish when so many more chickens, pigs and cows are being processed on factory farms? Then again, how could the treatment of other animals possibly justify the practice of feeding a duck through a metal tube down its throat? In his relentless yet good-humored pursuit of clarity, Caro takes us to the streets where activists use bullhorns, spray paint, Superglue and/or lawsuits as their weapons; the government chambers where politicians weigh the ducks' interests against their own; the restaurants and outlaw dining clubs where haute cuisine preparations coexist with Foie-lipops; and the U.S. and French farms whose operators maintain that they are honoring tradition, not abusing animals. Can foie gras survive after 5,000 years? Are we on the verge of a more enlightened era of eating? Can both answers be yes? Our appetites hang in the balance. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)641.66598Technology Home and family management Food And Drink Cooking specific materials Meat from domesticated animals Chickens and other kinds of domestic birds Other poultry GeeseClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Without pulling any punches, the author presents an unbiased look at the foie gras industry, the history of the delicacy in addition to other special 'treats' such as the eating ortolans that have since been banned, farming methods of ducks and geese bred primarily for their fattened livers although the rest of the ducks and geese are also sold to restaurants and markets for consumption. But it's the fattened livers, made into terrines or pan seared that bring a gleam to the eye of chefs and diners. The methods by which the ducks and geese are fed resulting in their prized engorged livers are what has some people protesting against the sale and consumption of foie gras. On the other hand, there are those who claim to have proof that the ducks and geese suffer no stress from being force fed and that left to their own devices, they would eat nonstop anyway. Therefore in their opinion, force feeding these waterfowl doesn't constitute torture.
The research provides unbiased information and one is left to up one's own mind on which side of the fence one stands. ( )