This video of Dan Barber at the Taste3 conference is like, a thousand years old in internet years, but it doesn’t seem to have made the blog rounds and it’s very interesting. The talk he gives is about his oft-discussed and beloved humane foie gras farm in Spain, which we touched on in August in a Slow Food Nation recap.
There’s a lot to digest (oh, the wit!) in the 20 minute video, but it’s all completely fascinating. For one, you get to hear Dan Barber make many nerdy little Dan Barber/foodie jokes, as well as rhapsodize on his love of foie gras. There are also educational bits about why the color of foie gras matters, the origins of foie gras, and why conventional foie gras is “an insult to history.” Even better, there are anecdotes about Eduardo Sousa, the goose farmer, like this one:
And he said to me really from the first moment, “my M.O, y’know, my life’s work, is to give the geese what they want. He repeated that about 50 times in the two days I was with him. “I’m just here to give the geese what they want.” Actually when I showed up, he was lying down with the geese with his cell phone, taking pictures of them. Like his children. In the grass. Isn’t that amazing? He’s really just in love with his g–, he’s at one–, he’s the goose-whisperer.
Oh really, Dan Barber? Really?He’s in love with his geese? He wants to give the geese what they want? Like, oh, killing them and feeding us their delicious, delicious livers?
Actually, that sounds just great to us, and not just because we love foie gras as much as Dan Barber does. No. The real reason is because geese are the new terrorists, and frankly, we probably should be eating as many of them as possible. In other words, consider this video nothing more than a briefing on the habits of our enemies. (For more info, you can read about “Why They Hate Us” on sister company New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog.)
