Didier Durand plans foie gras museum in his Chicago bistrot

The Times ^ | 3/12/2009 | Adam Sage in Paris

[bruinbirdman]

When Didier Durand led a campaign to overturn a ban on foie gras in Chicago, blood was spattered onto his restaurant windows, his patio was vandalised and he received threats.

While American animal-rights activists denounced him as a symbol of French cruelty, however, he won admiration in his native Dordogne for his steadfast defence of the local speciality.

Now Mr Durand is about to become a cult figure in the countryside of southwestern France after announcing plans to open a new front in the battle over Gallic gastronomy with what he calls a foie gras museum at his bistrot in Illinois.

He said: “I'm expecting more protests. I think I'll have to install surveillance cameras this time.” Mr Durand, 48, who grew up on a farm near Bergerac watching his mother produce the fatty duck livers seen by the French as one of the world's great delicacies, says he is on a mission to educate Americans about la cuisine Française.

“Foie gras has been produced for 5,000 years. It was the Egyptians who started it and there is nothing bad about it whatsoever,” he told The Times. Mr Durand insists the force-feeding of ducks and geese to fatten their livers, a practice described as abhorrent by opponents, is inoffensive.

“Ducks are built to be force-fed the same way that horses are built to be ridden,” he said. To prove his point, he will trace the history of foie gras with pictures and documents on the wall of a room in his restaurant, Cyrano's Bistrot.

Among the exhibits will be photographs of elderly French peasant women stuffing corn down the throats of ducks and geese, and a collection of labels from Gallic producers.

“I'd like to be able to move the museum into a separate building at

[Alter Kaker]

If only Saddam had declared war on foie gras, instead of Kuwait, France would have undertaken regime change long ago.

[ChetNavVet]

Miss’ure Durand, kill whatever the folks want to eat.
Cook it well with good spices, serve it at reasonable prices.

The idea I get (because my french is non existent [sp]) is that sombody is complaining abuot your lawn?

Hey, I’ll tell you what, if I can get a shrimp cocktail for less than 26$ - without having to go to France. BOY YOU GO!

[Global2010]

LOL I had to read the article also to understand what a grass museum is er goose liver museum.

I was puzzled as why PETA types would attach a restaurant that grows grass.

Now I know the rest of the story.
RIP Paul Harvey.

[PieterCasparzen]

The level of ignorance today is such a pity; there was a great article on American Thinker recently on how all these left-wing orgs are all sort of in the same nasty soup of “movements”.
Since our family structure has been so weakened, public schools indoctrinate instead of educate and consumerism (gluttony) has become so prevalent, the tragic side effect of gastronomic ignorance is becoming sickeningly obvious.
This generation is happy to munch on “manufactured”, poisonous - but popular - brand names, blissfully unaware of what actual food is. Put simply, too many folks not only don’t know or care how to cook any more - they actually don’t know what is good to eat.
Every single time I go to Whole Paycheck (this is truly a disgrace) I see a middle-aged woman asking the teen-age butcher-counter-CLERK how to cook a piece of meat. I kid you not. To most of our mothers and grandmothers this would be a disgraceful display being just too self-centered and lazy to not acquire the skills for basic hospitality.
I readily agree that the dear French are only a shadow of the nation they once were - as are many other nations. But to not appreciate the culinary leadership of France is as blind as to deny Yankee ingenuity or German engineering and craftsmanship - it’s a fools errand.
It is only by inspiring and informing as many of the misguided as we can that we can maintain anything of true quality and beauty, as some worship only conformity, mediocrity and laziness and will always refuse a plate of truth, no matter how delicious and nutritious. But if we persevere, there will be some converts to sanity. And they can then join us in enjoying all the foods the Lord has blessed us with at the big people’s table.