Chef Bart Hutchins, owner of Butterworth’s in Washington, D.C., has publicly opposed a proposed initiative that would ban foie gras production, sale, and service within the city. The measure, introduced by the advocacy group Pro-Animal D.C., seeks to prohibit all aspects of foie gras commerce, imposing fines ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per violation and suspending licenses for repeated offenses. Supporters of the ban have actively gathered signatures at Metro stations and farmers markets, and groups such as the DC Coalition Against Foie Gras have protested outside restaurants, sometimes causing disruptions.

Hutchins framed his opposition not merely as a defense of foie gras, but as a nuanced argument for responsible farming and culinary tradition. He recalled how Jean-Louis Palladin, the late French chef who pioneered refined American cuisine in Washington during the late 1970s and early 1980s, initially introduced fresh foie gras to the city despite legal restrictions on importing raw duck liver. Palladin reportedly smuggled whole lobes of fresh foie gras concealed within monkfish to serve an ingredient he regarded as essential to his craft.

The chef acknowledged the controversial nature of foie gras production, specifically the practice of gavage—force-feeding ducks through a tube to enlarge their livers. Hutchins conceded that the practice appears distressing, likening it to a form of violence when imagined as applied to humans. However, he emphasized biological differences in ducks, noting that their esophagus is desensitized and distinct from the windpipe, which reduces the procedure’s impact on breathing. He further explained that wild ducks naturally gorge themselves before migration, accumulating fat in a process that foie gras farming amplifies rather than invents, citing its origins dating back to ancient Egypt.

Hutchins contrasted foie gras production with common industrial farming abuses. He voiced his support for banning more widespread practices that harm animals, like those in concentrated animal feeding operations affecting pigs and chickens, but highlighted that the ducks used for foie gras on the farm he sources from are raised under humane conditions. According to Hutchins, these ducks spend about 15 weeks in open barns on a vegetarian diet, with manual force-feedings lasting roughly one and a half seconds, performed three times daily during the final three weeks. He asserted that the farm treats the ducks with a level of care and dignity missing from much of modern animal agriculture.

The chef criticized the activist approach that relies heavily on lobbying and shock tactics, arguing that such methods generate fleeting outrage rather than sustained care or understanding. He positioned genuine care as attention to detail and commitment to quality—a standard he associates with Palladin’s legacy and the ethical farms supplying his kitchen.

Hutchins warned that passing the ban would erase an important culinary tradition in Washington and discourage future chefs from engaging seriously with the ingredient. With Palladin’s Watergate restaurant having closed in 1996, Hutchins urged the city to preserve foie gras as a catalyst for culinary excellence and responsible sourcing.

He concluded by appealing directly to residents not to support efforts to bring the initiative to a vote, warning that its passage would represent a loss of both culinary heritage and a meaningful connection to ethical food production in the region.