Foie Gras Faux Pas

During an era of political and economic upheaval, the swirling ethical and culinary questions surrounding the production and consumption of foie gras hardly seem to warrant a place at the table of great controversies. Yet they have loomed large in my small corner of the universe since I moved with my family from California to Toulouse, near the heart of France’s foie gras territory, in 2014. Arriving just two years after California’s ban on the rich, fatty delicacy first went into effect, we were marked from the start as immigrants from a state that had committed the greatest of gastronomical heresies.

And it could get worse. After being overturned and then upheld by a series of federal courts, the ban is once again in place thanks to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in early January not to take up the case. In France, where the ban is followed intensely, the interest is not economic, since no foie gras made here is exported to the United States. Rather, the ban is a deep cultural wound for my newfound compatriots, who feel that the cherished ritual of eating foie gras is being deeply misunderstood. This celebrated tradition is now clashing with more modern sensibilities, mainly over such things as the treatment of animals.

I recently talked foie gras with Christophe Samaran, whose namesake family business is a legendary producer and seller of the stuff in the southwest region of France. His father, Pierre, played a pivotal role 50