By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 23, 2006

CHICAGO, Aug. 22 -- Don't come between foodies and their foie gras.

That was the message sent by Chicago diners who dug into foie gras dishes Monday, on the eve of the city's ban on foie gras taking effect. High-end restaurants had special foie gras tastings to protest the ban, and even a few down-home sandwich and pizza joints added it to their menus for the occasion.

At the 676 Restaurant & Bar on Chicago's Magnificent Mile, chef Robert Gadsby topped foie gras with Pop Rocks candies, wrapped it in prosciutto and blended it into hot chocolate as part of an "Outlaw Dinner" that also featured such controversial ingredients as wild morels, absinthe, unpasteurized imported cheese and hemp seeds. While the seven-course, $140 dinner was completely legal, all the ingredients have been banned at some point.

Gadsby, a chef known for his pop cultural, eccentric approach to American food, called the foie gras ban "ridiculous."

"What's next?" asked Gadsby, who also hosted an Outlaw Dinner last month at his Noe Restaurant & Bar in Los Angeles, where foie gras will be subject to a statewide ban by 2012. "They'll outlaw truffles, then lobster, beluga caviar, oysters. There are diners who eat to fill a hunger urge, and there are diners who eat to be dazzled. If you take away the luxury ingredients, how can you dazzle them?"

The Chicago City Council passed the foie gras ban in April, joining California and several European countries that outlawed foie gras alleging animal cruelty. Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," is produced by force-feeding grain to ducks and geese until their liver enlarges as much as 10 times its normal size.

"This isn't telling people what to eat; this is basically a statement against cruelty to animals," said Alderman Joe Moore, sponsor of the ordinance. "This is a product of animal torture, pure and simple. It doesn't need to be on menus in Chicago."

Chicago restaurant luminaries Charlie Trotter and Rick Tramonto agree and have both vowed not to serve the liver dish.

But others want to fight. On Tuesday, the Illinois Restaurant Association and Allen's, the New American Café in Chicago filed a lawsuit challenging the ban. The suit alleges the ban violates the state constitution, and will cost the city $18 million in lost revenue and taxes.

The city Department of Public Health will respond to initial reports of foie gras sales with a letter; if there is a second report, health inspectors will pay a visit. Health department spokesman Tim Hadac said there is little departmental enthusiasm for the ban, which Mayor Richard M. Daley has mocked as the "silliest law" passed by the council.

"We're not exactly chomping at the bit to enforce this," Hadac said. "It's an animal rights issue; it doesn't appear to relate to human health in any way."

The ordinance bans only the sale of foie gras, so restaurateurs have speculated that they can get around it by giving away foie gras or serving it at private parties.

Gadsby jokingly wondered whether he could cook with handcuffs on. He said he'd like to hold underground secret foie gras dinners or label foie gras as "duck liver" or "monkfish liver" to sell it.

Meanwhile, various chefs have reported demand for foie gras mushrooming since the ordinance was approved.

"Before, a lot of people didn't even know what foie gras is. Now they all want to try it," said Chicago chef Roger Herring, who held a foie gras tasting at his restaurant Socca late Monday. "I'm using this to celebrate the end of something, but it actually seems more like a beginning."

Impending prohibition certainly increased foie gras's allure for diners at the Outlaw Dinner.

"This seems like the rebellious thing to do," said one woman who declined to give her name.

Another item on the menu, wild morels, were briefly banned in California because of fears they would be confused with poisonous mushrooms. Absinthe in its hallucinogenic form -- with wormwood -- is banned in the United States. (The absinthe Gadsby served did not contain wormwood.) Unpasteurized imported cheeses have faced various restrictions because of health concerns. Gadsby also served duck cooked sous vide , a style where vacuum-sealed meat is stewed in below-boiling-point water for long time periods. It has also been banned for health reasons.

Kou Patra and Saurabh Shah, both physicians, attended Gadsby's dinner on their first day in Chicago after moving from Cleveland. They recently returned from vacationing in France, where they ate foie gras regularly. "I can't believe we moved to a place where they banned foie gras," said Patra, 33.

Some Chicagoans are outraged at what they see as a patronizing law, even if they rarely eat foie gras.

"They might as well make a citywide bedtime ordinance," said bartender David Brown, 29, who feasted on the outlaw ingredients with his wife, Jennifer, at 676. "It's like banning smoking. If I'm a bartender, I don't run a health club. We're adults; we're allowed to have bad habits."