Duck, Duck, LIVER!!!!!!!!!!!

So, tomorrow is Regional Menu day and the region is Perigord.  Don't worry, I had no idea it existed either.  Apparently, it doesn't really exist, but used to exist.  I don't know.  Either way, they eat A TON of duck in ye olde Perigord because (spoiler alert) every single dish in the menu tomorrow other than the dessert is based on duck.  And to top that, pretty much all the garnish will be cooked in some manner with what Chef calls "ze fat duck" - english translation melted duck fat.  So, we will all walk out of school tomorrow just a wee bit fatter, waddling like ducks, that's for sure.

After service this afternoon, group B stayed to see Chef break down the two rather large ducks that will serve as the backbone of our regional menu tomorrow.  Yes, we have all broken down ducks before but this duck was raised especially for foie gras and thus is a bit trickier to take apart.  As I watched Chef perform what can only be described as the closest thing I have ever witnessed to a live birth, I was filled on the one hand with awe that a liver could be that big and on the other hand couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor duck who was obviously force fed to produce such a fatty (albeit delicious) liver.  And that dichotomy pretty much sums up my inner conflicts as a yoga teaching culinary student.  However, my culinary curiosity inevitably wins out in the end and I tend not to dwell on things like how they killed the poor duck (I saw the stab mark in his neck) and instead focus on things like how can I make that taste awesome.  C'est la vie.

Ducky.

Let the liver birthing begin.

It's a....Foie Gras!

See how big that is?  Now, think about the ducks you see in your local pond.  This duck's liver is about the size of some ducks' entire bodies.

This is the hole the liver left.

And this is the fat and intestines that surrounded the liver.

You're welcome for ending the blog post with that visual.