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On-the-spot France

French chefs divided on putting protected ortolan back on menu

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Top French chefs, including Alain Ducasse and Alain Dutournier, want to bring the ortolan, a tiny songbird which is a protected species, back onto French menus one weekend per year.

French chefs like Alain Ducasse and Alain Dutournier would like to bring the ortolan back on the menu
French chefs like Alain Ducasse and Alain Dutournier would like to bring the ortolan back on the menu Getty Images/DEA/F.BALLANTI
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The ortolan - also known as the ortolan bunting - is increasingly rare with fewer than 600,000 couples in all Europe and 15,000 couples in France.

Braised ortolan is a pièce de resistance in the gastronomic tradition of south-west France, “as important as the Christmas tree”, says Dutournier and was reputedly one of former President Francois Mitterrand’s favourite dishes.

But in 1999 the dish was banned in France after the bird was declared an endangered species.

Bird protectionists are outraged at what they call a return to archaic tradition and top chef Raymond Blanc, head of the sustainable restaurant association, says if the ortolan is still endangered it has to stay out of the kitchen.

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