In California, Foie Gras Will Soon Be a Faux Pas

Gary Danko pan-sears a thick slice of duck liver in the kitchen of his San Francisco restaurant, letting it sizzle to a golden brown. He garnishes the delicate meat, better known as foie gras, with figs and champagne grapes. “I sell probably 40 orders a night or more,” says the chef, who opened Restaurant Gary Danko in 1999. “When the protesters are here, double that.”

Not for long. Danko and other chefs will have to remove the dish from their menus in July when California becomes the first state to outlaw the production and sale of foie gras. Animal-rights activists are pressuring restaurants to stop serving the delicacy, which sells for about $50 a pound, before the ban goes into effect. At issue is the way it is made: by force-feeding ducks or geese corn through a tube to fatten their livers, a practice activists say is cruel. (In the U.S., most foie gras come from ducks.) “These birds have done nothing to deserve this fate,” says Paul Shapiro, a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States. “It’s an inhumane practice that should be relegated to the history books.” Lindsay Rajt, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Los Angeles, says the group has persuaded the owners of several well-known restaurants to stop serving foie gras, including those operated by California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom’s PlumpJack Management Group.