TV Chefs Find New Ways to Keep Animals on the Menu

The casting call for a new cooking show reads: "Casting Chefs Who Can Cook Up a Storm (specifically unusual animals)." I don't know what "unusual animals" means, but it has the ring of "whatever you can get your hands on ... if it walks on four legs or has feathers, it's meat!" I also can't help but think of the thriving bushmeat market when I read this. Are people really looking for new and unusual animals to eat?

Chefs, especially those with TV celebrity status, promote what they want, not what consumers want. Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard recently drew fire for keeping veal on the menu. She defended her decision by saying "In the past, I have rarely used veal due to the inhumane treatment of calves. However, I was contacted by a local farm that raises free range veal in a very respectable way. While many people shun veal, the greater culinary community will continue to have veal be a part of their menus. All I am trying to do is get people to look at these local farms as refuge from larger meat-processing plants."

I agree that people need to look to local farms for their food, but if veal is shunned, why push it? Why not promote local farms for all of your ingredients, not just the morally questionable ones?

The term "free range veal" is a farce. Veal is one of those foods like foie gras that, by definition, can't be "respectable." The idea that food animals can be raised humanely hinges a bit on that "raised" part, not on killing them before they've had a chance to live. Veal calves are also intentionally made anemic for taste, so are these "free range veal" calves really allowed the nutrition that they need at the risk of producing meat that's not up to market expectations?

So, knowing its lack of popularity (at least compared to other meats, if nothing else) and the ethical issues surrounding veal, the "greater culinary community" continues to serve it.

Everywhere else, from hospitals to schools, the trend has been to incorporate more meatless meals. Earlier this year, Compass Group, the world's largest food service company, announced its new "Be a Flexitarian" initiative, expanding their meat-free options. If there wasn't consumer demand, Compass wouldn't have gone in this direction.

But these celebrity chefs want to make an impression and controversial meat is one way to do that. Yet, it shows a rather limited, sensationalist sense of creativity. Besides, people generally don't seem to have a problem knowing how to cook meat, but when it comes to vegetables, anything beyond salad, corn-on-the-cob, and steamed broccoli leaves many would-be healthy eaters stumped. I'd love to see a show cooking up unusual vegetables, showing people what to do with plants like jicama, kale, and sunchokes. It would be so much more colorful, useful, and humane.

Photo credit: ctaloi