Ethical Foie Gras Is HereFew foods are simultaneously able to raise feelings of delight and repulsion quite as deftly as foie gras. A fatty duck or goose liver that's so buttery it's both delicate and rich, foie gras is considered by many as one of the most luxurious foods. But its decadence makes the brutality of how it's farmed all the more acute: A controversial process known as gavage, where birds are force-fed several times a day through metal tubes until their livers swell, is often considered savage.  Gourmey fried foie gras. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg "Foie gras is going through an existential crisis," says Nicolas Morin-Forest, co-founder of Gourmey, a Paris-based cultivated-meat startup that wants to tap the expected market gap with an offering that is gavage- and even slaughter-free. Gourmey's product is made from duck stem cells harvested from a single fertilized egg, then grown in vitro, a technology embraced by the nascent cultured-meat industry, which by some estimates is set to claw a 35% share of the $1.8 trillion global meat market by 2040.  Marion Gaff, food engineer at Gourmey, prepares to fry some lab-grown foie gras. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg In stainless-steel tanks known as bioreactors, the cells are fed nutrients to multiply and eventually form whatever tissue is desired, be it fat, muscle, or sinew. More than 70 startups globally are working on everything from pork chops to kangaroo meat to bluefin tuna in response to environmental and livestock welfare concerns. As far as taste and texture go, Gourmey manages to deliver. In a private tasting, its pan-seared foie gras was remarkably good. The meat was slightly pink with a caramelized crust, soft and delicate with a flavor and smell indistinguishable from that of a high-quality foie gras. It melted in the mouth exactly as it should. | 
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