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HomeFeatured BlogsWhy French chefs want us to eat this bird – head, bones, beak and all

Why French chefs want us to eat this bird – head, bones, beak and all

Ortolan cooking France

Ortolans are trapped and put, alive, into a vat of Armagnac before they are cooked Photo: MaxPPP

The customary way of eating ortolan, a delicate songbird, involves the diner
covering his or her head with a large napkin. Tradition dictates that this
is to shield – from God’s eyes – the shame of such a decadent and
disgraceful act.

But if a clutch of leading French chefs have their way, the dish will soon be
back on the menu, allowing gluttons to indulge in a meal that ranks as one
of the most controversial of all time.

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The four cooks, including Alain Ducasse, who has a dazzling 18 Michelin stars
to his name, have called for a partial reversal of the ban on killing and
selling ortolans. He told a French food magazine that the prohibition
“undermines centuries of tradition, customs, and promotes a black market
with exorbitant prices”.

A single ortolan bird is no bigger than a baby’s fist and weighs less than an
ounce, but they can be sold for as much as £100 to those willing to break
the law.

“This is a cry from the heart,” said Michel Guérard, one of the inventors of
“nouvelle cuisine”, who wants to serve the dish for one day or one weekend
of the year.

Killing and selling the bird, a member of the bunting family, has been banned
in France since the late 1990s, though the ban was not strictly enforced
until 2007. The government, at the time, decided to act after poachers
caught vast numbers to supply restaurants. France’s League for the
Protection of Birds claimed ortolan numbers plunged 30 per cent between 1997
and 2007 as a result.

But the rarity of the bird is not the only reason why killing it is so
controversial. It is the method in which they are dispatched.

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Hunters catch the birds using traps set in fields during their migratory
season (when they fly to Africa). They are then kept in covered cages,
encouraging them to gorge on grain in order to double their size. It is said
that Roman Emperors stabbed out ortolans’ eyes in order to make the birds
think it was night, making them eat even more.

They are then thrown alive into a vat of Armagnac, a trick that manages to
both drown and marinade the animal at the same time. Killing two birds with
one glug, as it were.

French chefs argue that “it’s not a bad way to die”. Indeed, it is probably no
crueller than force-feeding a goose in order to fatten up its liver into
foie gras, another dish that French gourmets refuse to give up despite
mounting howls of horror around much of Europe.

Then comes the eating – part pagan ritual, part essay in gluttony. The birds
are cooked for eight minutes and served with their heads still attached.
After the shame-hiding napkin is placed over the diner’s head (helping, too,
to trap the aroma of the dish), the ortolan is popped in its entirety into
the diner’s mouth, who then proceeds to eat everything including the head
and bones.

Those who have tasted ortolan rave about the hazelnut and gamey flavours.
Jeremy Clarkson ate one during his Meet the Neighbours series in 2002, in
which he travelled around Europe. “It’s really good. It is fantastic,
fantastic,” he said, before quipping that he expected a record number of
complaints to be sent into the BBC about the incident.

There is some romanticism to the barbarous act – it appears in Proust and the
title character devours one in Gigi. The American chef Anthony Bourdain says
the experience is close to ecstasy: “With every bite, as the thin bones and
layers of fat, meat, skin and organs compact in on themselves, there are
sublime dribbles of varied and wondrous ancient flavours: figs, Armagnac,
dark flesh slightly infused with the salty taste of my own blood as my mouth
is pricked by the sharp bones.”

Ducasse and his fellow chefs point out that the songbird ban in France also
prohibits the killing of woodcock, which is legal in Britain. This is true.
The small, long-beaked bird can be found on the menu of St John restaurant
in London, famous for pioneering “nose to tail” eating, where it is served
with its head on, split down the middle. Traditionally, the most prized part
of eating woodcock is scooping out the brain.

But woodcock is shot, usually during a pheasant shoot; not trapped or drowned
alive like ortolan.

The most famous fan of the bird was President Mitterrand, who, just days
before he died from prostate cancer, hosted an epic meal on New Year’s Eve
in 1995.

It involved Mitterrand eating 30 Marennes oysters, foie gras and capon, washed
down with Sauternes and local red wine, before moving on to not just one,
but two ortolans.

The sheer gluttony of the old Socialist shocked many Frenchmen, even those who
think us Brits sentimental animal lovers for turning up our noses at horse
meat.

Ducasse and his fellow chefs say they are merely calling for a return to
tradition. I am not squeamish, but surely there are more wholesome
traditions worthy of a revival – and ones that involve fewer bones?

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Scottish readers: Undecided about the referendum? Please read How the media shafted the people of Scotland and Scottish Independence, Power And Propaganda.

(via Telegraph)

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