Matthew Levin's FAHRENHEIT825:

More from Matt on the Hudson Valley excursion—

In response to the recent post, I completely agree that the only way to tackle this is openly and honestly and that’s why we’re here. I saw what I saw—yes I had a guided tour and I did see a large group of workers quickly moving through the feeding process and handling the ducks in a very personal and friendly manner. I didn’t see anything that I felt as inhumane or abusive or rushed in any way. I saw feeders working to take care of their animals so that they will stay healthy and well maintained. As I said I love animals of all types and I was curious about my feelings going into this, and I came out with all my questions answered fully and completely. During the tour I saw it all—the babies, the ducks about to go to gavage and the ducks in the gavage process; as well as the ducks about to go to slaughter the next day…again they all looked great; not stressed not uncomfortable and not struggling in anyway. The only difference in the ducks was the size, NOTHING ELSE. And ok maybe if they only used to liver and the rest of the animal were discarded I may be upset, but that’s not the case. We ourselves use the whole animal, from the breast for sausages or as a dish, the legs for confit, the bones and the necks for stock and sauce and soup, the tongues for fried salads, the feet and wings for stocks, the fat to deep fry and confit, the liver for amazing foie gras preparations, and the testicles for VIP guests. So the whole animal is utilized and for good reason, it’s delicious and lends itself to countless preparations. I’m not trying to put down the argument of the other side but lets be honest; Hudson Valley is the best, end of story, the cleanliest, most organized, most disciplined and most humane, the name and reputation speak volumes. I urge you to go see the process for yourself and really educate yourself, I promise you if you go into it with an open mind you will see for yourself as I did, your mind will be put at ease. I thank you for your comments and look forward to further discussion on this topic and others. And thank you to the whole team at Hudson Valley for you hospitality the other weekend and your dedication to the craft, your expertise shines through in your final product and many of us cooks truly appreciate what you do for us…thank you.

Sunday October 14th trip to Hudson Valley foie gras farm

Drove up early from Philly to get there in time to get the full tour and experience of the foie making process. As we get there we see the tents and finally find Steve George from D'Artagnan as he is getting the grills set up for the foie and duck extravaganza that is about to ensue. Spanish ladies making brochettes of royal trumpets and duck balls, skewers of foie that was in the duck yesterday…crazy how fresh everything was. Lee and I are now itching for the “tour” so we just take it upon ourselves to get the tour we start walking down towards the actual farm, we get followed by and employee of the farm and he says “I’ll take you to see the babies.” Okay, well we get in there and I leave the door open behind us, and about 100 little guys got out. Oops. (Lee shoots video noting; “this is what happens when chef leaves the door open at the foie farm.” They just lost 100K, my bad. “Put it on the restaurant’s tab.” (We got them back in no problem.) We get into to the barn and I see a tub of liquid and I'm thinking no big deal they got a leak in the roof but then the guide dips his feet into the tub and says, “Go ahead.” I'm like ‘go ahead, what?’ He says, “Dip your shoes into the sanitizer.” Ok I get it now…no hormones, no antibiotics. We need to be as sterile as possible. It’s now 2pm. We are in the feeding part of the farm now. After 13 weeks the ducks go into the gavage process. To be totally honest, I love animals and went into this wondering to myself after this is done am I going to be ok with serving and or eating foie gras…I was truly concerned about how I was going to feel and not at all to my surprise I saw nothing that I felt was inhumane or harmful to the ducks. What I did see, is when the feeders turned the light on in the room they light up, they got excited to see their feeders. The way the process works is that once the ducks get into the gavage process, they are only cared for by a specific person, each person is in charge of 31 pens of 11 ducks and no one else touches or handles their specific ducks. (Actually they can’t because the duck won’t respond to another handler.) The ducks seemed to be in good shape and condition, nothing stressful at all. They actually get massaged before they eat, then are fed. They walk away…they don’t flop around; they don’t quack. They walk up to be fed and then walk away like nothing happened…phew, I felt much better. We then saw the immaculately clean slaughter arena and coolers where the foie and ducks are stored after they are slaughtered, and before the livers are graded and packed to be shipped to restaurants to serve our guests. After the tour we go up and have some lunch with Jacques Torres, François Payard and Christian Delouvier—foie and duck everything. The food was great, but at this point, ice cold. (Mind you we are in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York in October…its cold outside.) As we are getting ready to leave and head back to the restaurant—about a 3-hour drive— John Mariani stops me (the food writer from Esquire Magazine). We spoke some foie and the issues we are having with the radicals in Philly. We will win this fight. I promise you that I’m not letting anyone tell me what I can or cannot serve to my guests. Please let’s get past all this propaganda and get some truthful information from veterinarians and other medical professional not from anti meat activists.

East meets West weekend at arrows restaurant

9.27.07 Friday: Left Philly at 11AM and headed north. Hit some crazy traffic around Boston but managed to get to Arrows by 6:30PM

Dropped off the food and went to the B&B, a nice place with a steam room, hot tub, etc.
Grabbed a quick shower and went back to Arrows to have dinner. (They cook for all the chefs that are doing the event for the weekend.)

For dinner, we prepared an amuse bouche of fried farmhouse cheddar, foie cappuccino with a lemon thyme biscotti—awesome— and tomatoes from Arrows' garden with house made bleu cheese, shrimp cocktail and a Vietnamese salad roll with clear sauce and fried bean threads. The meal also included some Philly fare: cheese steaks, TastyKakes and chocolates for all the guys. (They loved it, Jay got 15 Pat's steaks…I would have gotten Genos, but that's just me.) 

On the invite list for this chef-only soirée were: David Waltuk, Frank McClelland, Paul Kahn, Rebecca Charles and me. Last year's list included Marc Vetri, Gene Burns, Melissa Kelly, Price Kushner, Mark Ayers, Taite Pearson. Mark and Clark are awesome people…

Saturday: After dinner now about 1:30 am and beat to shi#. Drank too much. Knew I had to be up by 8am and wanted to get into kitchen early to prep. Took a steam for about 30 minutes, got to bed around 3am and into the kitchen at 9 am. Did mise en place for hors d’oeuvres and amuse bouche. Everyone was freaked about our hors…pop rocks, pizza liquid ravioli, burnt marshmallow etc., pickled scallops with green apple Jolly Rancher...

Went to lunch at Perkins Cove, Mark and Clark's other restaurant about 2 miles away and right on the water with a "sick" view

Went back to Arrows at 3, finished the mise en place and spoke with servers about the dishes. Great contacts made: Paul Kahn from Blackbird and Avec (in Chicago). Taite Pearson, Spago, Las Vegas, Charles Phan, The Slanted Door, San Fran, David Waltuck, Chanterelle, NYC. Told everyone of the blogsite and the cookbook… everyone wants one.      

We were the only ones that helped with each course. Spoke to all the guests on the lawn during hors; everyone was blown away… After the meal we went into the dining room and spoke to all the guests who all said our hors d’oeuvres were the best items of the night.

It’s now 2AM: 30 pizzas arrive (and so does the god damn champagne…as if drinking tequila and Lillet all night wasn’t enough.) Christ I was f-ed up.

Sunday: we get back to the hotel at 4AM had to be back at 9am to set up for the fair and my Serrano ham demo. Yeah well Jason and I both overslept bad he knocks on my room door at 9 saying f-k we overslept lets go. We get in there completely in the shit, but we pull it together and everything goes amazing...We did house cured prosciutto with smoked golden raisins. Everyone loved it. We sold hams to people for $75. It was crazy. 1000 people just Jason and I so yeah we got killed…did the demo all is well. Finished up then went to the eat fried clams at the same clam shack President Bush gets his…awesome! Climbed on the cliffs around Perkins Cove which was so much fun, but kinda scary with no ropes, hanging over the ocean in clogs and chef whites…

Got cleaned up, showered and went back to Arrows to assist on the California wine dinner. Again too much tequila and too much wine, but dinner a success.

Monday: Now 2AM more wine and BBQ pig that smoked for 18 hours. Chicken fries… more wine. (Mind you, I don’t really drink, so yeah my head killed me and I was exhaustedly drunk.)

Meet Matt:

If you've never heard of Matt, he's the burly, tattooed, tongue pierced, clean cut with glasses guy running the kitchen at Lacroix at The Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia. Despite the fact that he admits to eating Easy Mac and looks like he could take out a couple of the Eagles' linebackers, he's notably graceful in the kitchen and if his history isn't embellished, on the lacrosse field. A pedigreed mad scientist, Levin's been turning heads with his innovative cuisine and has his sights set on winning a James Beard Award. Interested, read on...

Greatest culinary feat: Hasn’t been accomplished yet, but it will be my own place and a James Beard award.

Five ingredients you can't live without: smoked honey, I make it myself; 10-year aged Gouda, kampachi, it’s a Jack from Hawaii; Tonka beans, an illegal bean from South America that’s very high in Cumadin a blood thinner; you eat to much you die instantly; and live Scottish langoustine.

Most prized culinary object d’art/tool/equipment: My notebook from Trotter’s, my immersion circulatoire, and my tool is my micro plane.

Favorite line of cookware and knives: Cookware, Sitram and knives, Nenox.

Food you think most people fear: Sea urchin. But that’s ok; I do too.

Worst cooking disaster: On a rainy Tuesday night at Striped Bass (Philly) I was asked to work the line for the first time—I thought I was the shit…well, I wasn’t. I got smoked. I had the five most popular dishes and I thought we wouldn’t be busy because of the rain. Ha! I was wrong and I got killed. Eventually I made my way out of it but nearly shit my pants in the process. I was 21.

Favorite meal to make at home: Clam chowder with homemade bread on a cold day…awesome.

Signature dish: Has been foie gras with sour cherries forever, but not serving that anymore. (Sorry foie foes, still serving the foie, just not this dish.)

Culinary trend you COULD live without: FUSION. I hate it.

Person you’d like to cook for most: Ferran Adrià, chef of El Bulli.

Favorite culinary resource (for cookbooks, tools or ingredients): Terra Spice for ingredients…Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York City for cookbooks.

What you’d eat if no one were watching: The same thing I’d eat if everyone were watching.

Most valuable piece of cooking advice you tell your staff: Be patient, be vulnerable to food and always keep an open mind.

Biggest mistake amateurs make in the kitchen: Rushing through the process and allowing what they know about cooking to go out of their heads.

Castle in the sky: What you’d do if money and time were limitless: Honestly, it would be what I’m talking about doing now.