Hubert Keller may stop serving foie gras at Fleur De Lys in advance of the upcoming California ban, he said today. While the state will start enforcing the ban on the goose liver pate in 2012, Keller said in an interview that he would stop selling the stuff, which currently figures heavily on his menu, “probably within two years or maybe even before then.” He compared the upcoming ban to the smoking ban of the last decade. “At Fleur De Lys, we [were] one of the first restaurants in San Francisco [to become] non-smoking, even though the law hadn’t been passed then,” he said. But while he intends to be ahead of the curve, Keller said he will miss the pate, a tradition in the Alsace region of France, where he is from.
Keller was talking in a telephone press conference to promote the upcoming Top Chef Masters (premiering June 10 on Bravo), for which he said he drew more on his Fleur De Lys menu more than Burger Bar. Though Keller wouldn’t disclose how far into the competition he got, he seems to have made a hit in at least one portion of the pilot: A panel of Girl Scouts judged the dessert portion, for which Keller made animal shaped pastries. “It’s a little swan, and that would be more Fleur De Lys in a sense,” he said. “The simple thing like macaroni and cheese, that could be something like from Burger Bar, very simple.” But, he said, “all the things were more Fleur De Lys, definitely.”
[Photo: Via Fleur De Lys]
