California foie gras ban was felt in Las Vegas
While the California foie gras ban was in effect, Andre’s Restaurant at the Monte Carlo saw quite a few visitors from the Golden State who were hungering for the delicacy, which is the enlarged liver of ducks or geese.
The ban went into effect in 2012 and was struck down Jan. 7 by a federal judge, although it could be upheld by an appeals court.
“From some of the people I was able to talk to, they’re actually doing their research online on where to go in Las Vegas to get the best foie gras,” said Chris Bulen, executive chef. “We tend to pop up quite a bit.”
That may be in part because Andre’s serves the only known foie gras martini in Las Vegas. Yes, a foie gras martini, made with roasted foie gras, Tahitian vanilla, honey, vodka and brandy.
“It’s one of those slightly milky martinis,” Bulen said. “The foie gras taste is there, but you still have the predominance of the vodka and the sweetness of the brandy and the honey.”
But if the martini has the ring of novelty, the restaurant also offers a number of more conventional foie-gras preparations.
“It’s all over our menu,” Bulen said; there’s the cold foie gras terrine and the pan-seared foie gras.
“And we also offer an a la carte special where you can get foie gras Rossini on a ribeye or anything you want,” he said.
And they do want, it seems. Bulen said it’s not unusual for someone to order a double portion of the super-rich liver, which happens at least once a week.
“More common that that,” he said, “is we see people get the cold foie gras as their first course and the hot foie gras as their second course and on their entree, so they’re doing it several ways. They start with the martini and from there they end up getting two or three more items.”
Barry Dakake, executive chef of N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms, said he didn’t notice an increase during the ban.
“People who come to Vegas are coming to Vegas,” Dakake said. “They’re not making special trips, ‘I’m going to have foie gras.’ If it’s on the menu, they’re going to order it.”
But Mathieu Chartron, executive chef of Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace, said he did experience people making special trips for the delicacy.
“Most of them, they just came for the foie gras,” he said, “ordering like two courses with foie gras, one cold preparation, the other one hot.”
Chartron said he was in Los Angeles shortly after the ban was lifted, and restaurants were already featuring specials containing it.
“Apparently, the next day it was back on the menu,” he said.
And the ban was a boon, while it lasted, for at least one local business. Artisanal Foods owner Brett Ottolenghi said about half of the customers who came to his store on Sunset Road were there for foie gras.
“Just for them, we started stocking freezer bags and insulated bags, because so many of them needed a way to get it back home,” he said.
Ottolenghi said he also shipped it to to California — which was legal, even under the ban — but that those sales weren’t substantial.
Artisanal Foods gets its supply from Sonoma Foie Gras, which he said moved from California to New York State during the ban.
“We always considered them to be the most humane of the three,” he said. “They’re by far the smallest producer; they only do about 300 ducks a week. The next largest, La Belle, does 2,000, and Hudson Valley does like 8,000 a week.”
Ottolenghi said he does expect the judge’s decision to affect his retail business.
“Now that the ban is over, we’ll have to find new customers to replace them,” he said.
But the chefs don’t expect to see a major drop in foie gras sales.
“I don’t think so, because everywhere you get a different preparation of foie gras,” Chartron said. “At Guy Savoy they come to try the Guy Savoy way.”
“I definitely think they’re still going to come back and get it,” Bulen said. “If they travel to Las Vegas, I think they’re still going to be looking for it.
“It was definitely missed in California, that’s for sure.”
Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.
