FOUR French chefs are requesting a waiver to serve a long-banned delicacy: a small songbird called the ortolan that fans, including late president Francois Mitterrand, used to devour, bones and all, while wearing a napkin over their heads.
The request for a once-a-year waiver was being lodged, among others, by Alain Ducasse, the internationally acclaimed chef with a top three-star rating from the Michelin gourmet dining guide, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
The ortolan, a seed-eating songbird little bigger than a child’s hand, has been banned from restaurant menus in much of Europe since 1999.
Said to have been part of Mitterrand’s last meal in 1996, one customary French way of preparing ortolan consists of force-feeding it until fat and dousing it in Armagnac alcohol before roasting it whole in the oven.
Fans often wear a large, usually white, napkin over their head while eating. Some say the napkin conceals them as they spit out bones, others that it seals in aromas and still others that it serves to fend off the shame of being seen by God eating a songbird.
The request for the right to serve up ortolan one day or one weekend a year would be lodged in coming days with the French authorities, Le Parisien newspaper cited one of Ducasse’s fellow backers, three-star chef Michel Guerard, as saying.
Ducasse did not answer a call for comment at once. – Reuters