Ortolan Bunting back on the menu?
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Four French chefs are requesting a legal waiver from the EU to cook and serve the declining Ortolan Bunting, a long-banned delicacy.
The small songbird was notoriously eaten by the late President Francois Mitterrand as his last meal before he died in 1996, and by TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson on his controversial show on the French Jeremy Clarkson Meets The Neighbours (2003), and the plucked and cooked birds are traditionally consumed while including their bones, while covering the head with a large napkin or towel – allegedly to retain the subtleties of flavour and fumes of the roasted birds, which can also be marinated in Armagnac first after being drowned in the liqueur.
The waiver has requested by Alain Ducasse, a three-starred Michelin chef at the Dorchester Hotel, London, among others, the newspaper Le Parisien has reported. Another three-star chef, Michel Guerard, has been reported in the paper as saying that the request to French authorities is for the right to serve Ortolan Buntings for one day or one weekend a year.
The hunting of Ortolan Bunting has been banned in the EU since 1999, but in France it is estimated that 50,000 individuals are taken illegally each year, mostly for the pot, and the French government has come under criticism for poorly enforcing the law.
The small songbird was notoriously eaten by the late President Francois Mitterrand as his last meal before he died in 1996, and by TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson on his controversial show on the French Jeremy Clarkson Meets The Neighbours (2003), and the plucked and cooked birds are traditionally consumed while including their bones, while covering the head with a large napkin or towel – allegedly to retain the subtleties of flavour and fumes of the roasted birds, which can also be marinated in Armagnac first after being drowned in the liqueur.
The waiver has requested by Alain Ducasse, a three-starred Michelin chef at the Dorchester Hotel, London, among others, the newspaper Le Parisien has reported. Another three-star chef, Michel Guerard, has been reported in the paper as saying that the request to French authorities is for the right to serve Ortolan Buntings for one day or one weekend a year.
The hunting of Ortolan Bunting has been banned in the EU since 1999, but in France it is estimated that 50,000 individuals are taken illegally each year, mostly for the pot, and the French government has come under criticism for poorly enforcing the law.
