- End of year celebrations with less foie gras.
It may be more difficult to find the paté symbol of French cuisine, and it will certainly be more expensive, due to an epidemic of bird flu which, in the country beyond the Alps, devastated the farms and ranches of the West and South last winter.
After millions of ducks and geese have been culled to stop the epidemic, some farmers say they must take an unprecedented step: use female specimens, so far neglected because they are less ready for fattening and therefore less profitable.
The waves of bird flu hit the region one after the other between November 2021 and June 2022, causing the slaughter of 16 million young.
Until now, females were killed at birth in large industrial farms and preparatory activity was dedicated only to males.
The taste is the same, but female livers are much smaller and harder to work with, and the impact on a producer's bottom line is inevitable.
"It is only a stopgap measure, especially for fresh foie gras of superior quality," stressed the president of the marketing council for foie gras for the Gers department, Benjamin Constant, in Samatan, in south-western France .
"A significant amount cannot be sold fresh, which penalizes producers selling in public markets," he said.
But, he added, "we couldn't just sit and wait, it's not in our nature, as we try to value a product while respecting consumers."
The scarcity of production and the consequent increase in price lists also worries Italian restaurants.
But for a French establishment operating in Rome, Le Carré Français, the solution comes from the consolidation of supplies from the international market of Rungis on the outskirts of Paris, which specializes in excellent fresh products.
The owner, the Breton Jildaz Mahé, explains: "Duck and goose foie gras is a raw material that is less available at the moment, but which we are able to find, albeit at tripled prices, thanks to a distributor who supplies himself Frenchmen of the Parisian marché who have companies not involved in the flu and are therefore allowed to sell only for the quotas reserved for gastronomic brands in the event of epidemics".
Along with the festive menu, there is also news in the corporate structure with the arrival of Giorgio Fanfani, managing director of the company of the French family Lefevre, new owner of Le Carré Français in Rome, with the aim of making the Capitoline venue a springboard for launch for similar activities in other parts of Italy.