The Glenwood Restaurant has cooked many vegetables. It has
sincerely and determinedly doffed its cap to the champions of animal rights –
and to the animals themselves. It is not entirely a restaurant built on the
torture of animals for the pleasure of people. Nevertheless, we find ourselves,
two weeks from the end, serving foie gras. Doing so is becoming to Death and
Dying. Like the cypress, we take it to be a symbol of death. Of finality. We
shall serve foie gras for as long as it lasts in our pantry, starting tomorrow.
How long it lasts will depend on how many self-serving hedonists we feed, how
soon.
An authentic French woman has flown back with it from France and
delivered it to our doorstep. She had to be lured with all sorts of treats and
promises, of course. We receive the parcel tonight, under the cover of
darkness, in a small pizza venue – address will remain undisclosed.
Foie gras, the French claim, is part of their protected cultural
heritage. If a duck or goose is fattened somewhere else, say in Turkey, the
product of that fattening is the intellectual property of France. So, the liver
itself might be Turkish, but the fact that it has been fattened, in a way that is
good for eating, belongs to the French. You, dear Patron, can work this out for
yourself.
The aforementioned intellectual property oddity is not dissimilar
to how the French think of a chateau, or chateaux (plural). A chateau can only
exist in France. By this they mean that the same house, brick for brick, if on
other soil, cannot be called a chateau. Chateaux, by definition, are buildings
which stand on French soil. So, it is not a word which is up for translation,
like mansion or villa or castle. It designates a building of a specific type
which resides in France. Foie gras, whether on French soil or not, belongs to
the French.
Fortunately, we at The Glenwood Restaurant are not intimated in
the least by this guileful nationalism. We cook it with gay abandon and
fearlessly – these are not the same thing. One can display gay abandon and mean
it, whilst being riddled with fear. We are neither. We are about to leave this
mortal coil, we have nothing to lose.
Important
notices: Adam and Carin Robinson would like to thank the staff of The Glenwood
Restaurant for their impeccable work and commitment to the restaurant. You will
make us cry still. We think Durban owes you a round of applause. We love you
all. Thank you.
The photograph is of Bernadette on her last trip to France, just
after having harvested some goose livers herself. Notice the gay abandon. You
too could look like that.