Top Chef Canada Contestant Serves Up Foie Gras at New Restaurant

by Annie Hartnett · 2011-06-17 07:02:00 UTC
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Top Chef Canada’s first episode scored the highest ratings ever for a Canadian premiere, but the show is on thin ice with animal lovers. The first season of the Canadian cooking show has already dished up horse meat, seal flipper, and several foie gras dishes.

"I didn't think [the horse meat] was that big of a deal," Top Chef contestant Dale Mackay shrugged in his video blog, after waxing poetic about his foie gras poutine. "Obviously some people feel completely differently, and don't want to see horse meat on Top Chef or on TV in general."

Indeed, over 3,000 Change.org users have signed Animal Law Coalition's petition demanding Top Chef Canada never to serve horse meat again, and over 6,200 Facebook users have joined a boycott against the show.

It's worrisome that Chef Mackay appears so lackadaisical towards animal welfare concerns when his own restaurant, Ensemble, claims to be invested in sustainable eating. To Mackay's credit, the Vancouver-based eatery doesn't serve horse meat, but unfortunately Mackay does dish out foie gras. Recently, a foie gras sundae was featured on the menu, although that ice-cold option has since been removed.

Mackay's been in the business long enough to know the outrageous cruelty that birds endure for the dismal dish: foie gras is made by force-feeding ducks and geese through a metal feeding tube in order to create a fatty, diseased liver. This process sometimes results in holes in a bird's sensitive neck, and the bird's engorged liver often becomes diseased. The birds are kept in filthy, crammed conditions while they wait to be force-fed.

Delicious food needn't come at such a high cost to animals, and Dale Mackay should be a true Top Chef and take a stand against this egregious cruelty. Sign the petition to ask Dale Mackay to remove foie gras from the menu at Ensemble.

Photo Credit: ishane

Annie Hartnett is a writer and animal advocate who has worked for several wildlife rehabilitation centers and environmental programs.

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