'Top Chef' controversy: Would you eat horse for money?
Top Chef Canada included horse meat in this week's episode, as part of a French dish challenge. People with long braids, owners of Black Beauty memorabilia, and everyone who's been on a merry-go-round are pissed. The Huffington Post reports mayhem on the the Top Chef Canada Facebook page, as well as the creation of a new page called Boycott Top Chef-Protect the Horses.
Horse slaughter happens, and The Stir reported in January that when America shut down its industry in 2007, it just rerouted to Mexico and Canada. Even some animal rights groups believe that we should start the industry back up, so that horses don't suffer as they're shipped across borders.
The show's site defended itself in advance by calling horse one of the "most traditional French foods." If that was still the case, Canadians, most intimate with French culture, would probably be a lot less angry about the show.
TV producers and chefs, alike, seek to surprise their audiences, and chefs are famous for prioritizing the eating experience over eco-sustainability and social morays. Whale and tiger were both recently served at American restaurants. Bluefin tuna, a threatened population, appears on most sushi menus. Even for less edgy chefs (the edge in this case is not a good one), cooking horse would be a minor issue, especially when there's fortune and fame at stake.
Would you cook or eat horse for money?
More to check out:
Bon Appetit's 25 weirdest food names
There's wood in your food
A Chef's secrets for cooking fish
P.S. Wait, there's a Top Chef Canada? Correct. It started last month and looks like ours, except, Canadian:
