TV chef dropped for cat recipe comments, chef won't apologize

[Liberal_in_LA]

TV chef dropped for cat recipe comments
By Jim Clancy, CNN
February 24, 2010 11:37 p.m. EST

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Italy's state-owned television broadcaster has dropped a popular chef for sharing a recipe with viewers to cook cat.

Beppe Bigazzi told CNN that while he would miss collaborating with the RAI-Uno TV network, he would not apologize for his comments because they reflected historical facts, not just his opinion.

He blamed the furor on animal rights activists saying "It's their problem, not mine!"

During a live broadcast February 10, the grandfatherly Italian cooking expert noted that in decades past, Italians in the region of Tuscany did eat cat meat.

Bigazzi, 77, told viewers there was a saying for this time of year that "if you don't have meat, kill the cat."

The popular TV chef then went on to describe how you can tenderize the meat by letting it soak for three days in running spring water.

------

He told viewers he had dined on cat many times and that the meat tasted better than chicken or rabbit.

Management at RAI-Uno suspended him immediately. The chef said he has since been told he will not be appearing on the show again.


http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/24/italy.chef.cat/index.html?hpt=C2

[Mojambo]

1. What a catastrophe for his career. n/t

[The Doctor.]

64. Yes, even felineous!.

It's pawsible he'll be out of work fur a long time.

[hootinholler]

68. Furball he said, he certainly was whiskered off the air.

He didn't even say you should purrboil them.

-Hoot

[virgogal]

2. Aw jeesh ! Poor little kitties.

[aquart]

3. Really. I thought rats were tastier than cats.

Cats are pretty much the last animal anyone eats.

The French had a rat recipe book from a previous famine.

[Maru Kitteh]

4. Maru would like to extend his middle finger and remind the chef that long pig is pretty tasty too.

Hey. It's only historical.

No meat around the house? Kill the prick in the funny white hat.

[Cetacea]

59. +1

[The Doctor.]

65. Any cat would *absolutely* agree with you.

Wake up 8 inches tall one day, your cats will be thrilled.

:evilgrin:

[jesus_of_suburbia]

5. He had a right to do the show........ and they had a right to fire him.

He needs to get a clue.

People watching a cooking show on tv are probably not desperate enough to kill a domesticated animal for food.

[Mojambo]

6. Unless they have convenient access to a running spring... n/t

[The Doctor.]

69. "yet"

[flvegan]

7. Blames the animal rights activists? Really?

Nice job, AR activists!!!!!! Take a bow, well done.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Historically speaking then, he should have given some recipes for cannibals as well.

[beam me up scottie]

33. How long before fat rich white guys start looking tasty to the hungry and homeless?

Remember 'Fried Green Tomatoes' ?

:evilgrin:

[BrklynLiberal]

36. YES!!! and "Soylent Green". I am sure some repuke will eventually suggest that as a way

to solve the Social Security and Medicare problem.

[beam me up scottie]

43. I hope the repukes will be the ones simmering in the pot.

We could have barbecue contests and bake-offs!

[pnorman]

73. Not to mention, "A Modest Proposal", by Jonathon Swift.

n/t

[AnnieBW]

71. It's just a Modest Proposal...

Irish children are especially tasty, according to Jonathan Swift.

[slampoet]

55. I collect old recipes dating back to the 1200's. I have never seen a recipe for human flesh.

So where are your recipes? Can you give a link to an historical recipe? Everything that i see post-dates the invention of the internet.

Or are you making the error that just because there has been cases of people eating a given animal there is a history of doing so in an organized manner?

[Book Lover]

9. Here's the clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnyAgvxwhMw

Before you slip into the role of the indignant finger-wagger, watch the clip. Understand that the man was speaking in a historical context, of times of famine, and that despite the article's misleading claim, at no time shares a recipe on how to cook cat. Indeed, it makes one wonder why there is such a media-driven fuss over the clip.

[izquierdista]

10. He is about the right age

Born about 1932-33, early teens at the end of WWII when Italy was ravaged by war. If you've ever seen Ladro di Bicicletta, you can imagine how poor post-war Italy was. In those circumstances, I'll bet many of you would eat Fluffy too.

[KittyWampus]

16. in Haiti, they make dirt cookies. I think when you are that hungry, options limited

priorities change.

[slampoet]

57. BINGO!!! Fact is that people don't eat useful animals unless they have no choice.

People in India don't eat cows because cows are their tractors and plow fields.
People in the USA don't eat horses and mules for the same reason.

The same goes for cats. Cats protect food from vermin and as tempting as a cat might be for a hungry but not starving person, the logical mind says to not to eat the cat becasue it is the only thing protecting your grain from rats, mice and other vermin who would steal the food from you.

[alcibiades_mystery]

66. My father grew up in post-war Northern Italy

(born 1941).

Trust me when I say that as children, we were forced to eat everything on our plates, every night, no excuses and no exceptions, whether we "liked" the food or not. Tales of "children going hungry" weren't abstract to my Dad. He knew what that meant.

Tuscany in 1943-1947? I don't doubt for a second that people ate cat and enjoyed it. And I don't blame them at all.

[REP]

11. There's also the expression "meaner than cats meat"

Eaten out of desperation. Most obligate carnivore mammals aren't that tasty.

[WindRiverMan]

58. Bullshit!

I have eaten mountain lion and it is very good, and in interior Alaska, leg of lynx is considered a delicacy and I have eaten that as well, but I did not think it was as good as mountian lion. Seal meat, on the other hand, is like eating fish flavored beef.

[Stevenmarc]

12. Well it's not like it's that easy to find a running spring outside your back door

[lonestarnot]

13. sssssssssss

[Renew Deal]

14. Now I know what to do about all the cats running around here.

:D

[AlphaCentauri]

75. don't forget to share the recipes

I have never taste a cat but now I'm tempted to do it

:sarcasm:

[Vinnie From Indy]

15. Tabby Tartar

Siamese Sausages
Calico Chowder

[JVS]

17. I don't see the problem. Eating the cat was a running joke in ALF.

[Ikonoklast]

22. And it was never funny then, either.

The running joke in ALF was that the producers got some coke-addled executive at the network to buy it.

[brettdale]

18. gOOD job

He cant really think he was going to keep his dog after that.

[brettdale]

19. gOOD job

He cant really think he was going to keep his dog after that.

[brettdale]

20. gOOD job

He cant really think he was going to keep his dog after that.

[Hekate]

21. When it comes to food, moderns *really* don't want to know what their ancestors ate. Reminds me...

... of the time one of the cops at the University was interviewed by the student newspaper about the history of the Foot Patrol unit that serves the adjacent student ghetto -- oh, excuse me, crappy high-density housing.

In recounting her time on the force, she mentioned in passing that the stray dog problem (which is HUGE due to irresponsible students letting them wander during the school year and then abandoning them over the summer x( ) all-but-vanished during the years that a high concentration of impoverished Hmong refugees were living in that same area alongside the students.

Well! From the subsequent furor among the Asian-American students -- especially the young-adult Hmongs among them -- you would have thought the officer had alleged they were snacking on human babies.

The police chief made the officer apologize deeply to one and all.

I was working for them at the time as an admin asst, and I knew that the entire unit was hand selected to be as sympathetic and understanding as possible toward the population they were tasked with protecting and serving. It's why there was a Foot Patrol at all. None of them were stupid or ill-educated or bigoted.

In some parts of Asia and the Pacific, even to this day, dogs are an acceptable source of meat. Honest. But in the US, privileged as we are, certain animals are pets and are off-limits for eating: horses, dogs, cats.

And people really do not want to know that others -- including their ancestors --might have eaten them.

Sorry about the chef.

Hekate

[Vinnie From Indy]

23. Yeppers!

If it slithers, crawls, flies or swims, you can bet that at some point a human somewhere has eaten it.

[Codeine]

25. People will lose their shit if they discover someone has eaten a dog

but take no notice of the bacon they ate while reading about it in the paper, even though the pig was probably more intelligent than the dog they're lamenting.

*sigh*

[Codeine]

24. So it's horrible to eat a cat -

career-ending horrible - but all the other animals he cooked on his show were just fine and dandy? The double standard is absurd -- either it's OK to eat animals or it is not OK to eat animals.

[beam me up scottie]

27. I'm glad I have the luxury to be a vegetarian, not everyone is so lucky.

I cannot condemn anyone for eating animals but I do judge people by how they treat captive creatures while they're still alive.

[Codeine]

28. Precisely.

I haven't eaten an animal product in over twenty years, but pretending that one animal is somehow more entitled to life than another is profoundly odd to me. If you can't eat cats then you can't eat pigs or goats or cows -- that just seems logical to me. :shrug:

[beam me up scottie]

31. All feel pain, all fear death.

"Humans -- who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals - -- have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential if we are to bend them to our will, wear them, eat them -- without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us."

~ Dr. Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

[BrklynLiberal]

37. It is only the unspeakable arrogance and stupidity of man that would enable him

to think that other creatures do not know pain or fear death.

[beam me up scottie]

42. They used similar excuses to justify slavery and the "taming" of savages for thousands of years.

Ignorance is bliss.

[Amaya]

53. " If you can't eat cats then you can't eat pigs or goats or cows -- that just seems logical to me. "

EXACTLY!
and this guy lost his job because " cats" are sacred!

[BrklynLiberal]

39. ..

:thumbsup: :pals:

[beam me up scottie]

48. Sunshine, fresh air, the freedom to walk, run, swim and fly...

No excuse for factory farms, none. They should be shut down and the owners/operators charged with felony cruelty to animals, one count for every one of the animals in their care.

[proteus_lives]

26. It's funny.

"Teh Outrage".

Because if someone knew true hunger, they'd eat their "fur-baby" raw.

[Codeine]

29. LOL!

I'm a vegan, but if I'm starving in the woods and a cute and fuzzy little bunny rabbit gets too close to me it's gonna be Jason 1, Nature 0.

[EOTE]

44. Oh yeah? Not if it happens to be this bunny.

There are some natural things that are just best not to be fucked with.

[Codeine]

45. The Vorpal Bunny is indeed a force with which to be reckoned. nt

[reflection]

49. "Perhaps we could confuse it by running away." n/t

[EOTE]

50. Run away!!!!!!!!!!!

[reflection]

51. Not to threadjack,

but have you ever seen Cleese's eulogy of Graham Chapman?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsHk9WC7fnQ

It's quite funny and sad at the same time... they wrote MPatHG together... it's my absolute favorite movie and every time I watch it I think of Cleese giving this speech.

[EOTE]

54. Can't say I have, until now. Thanks for sharing.

Humor and empathy go hand in hand. He sounds like a true friend.

[Vinnie From Indy]

76. Amen!

There is hardly a single DU'er that wouldn't eat what was put in front of them if they and their family were starving.

[Jennicut]

30. I am sitting here looking at my kitties Blackberry and Daisy and they are NOT happy

about hearing this.

Seriously, he only repeated what was true in history. And if you are hungry you will eat anything. Maybe even a rat.

[Codeine]

32. Especially a rat.

They stew up nicely.

[Hekate]

34. I named one of my kitties Fluffy until she brought me home her first big rat. She's Fluffy Killer...

... now. I'm waiting for the day she brings us a gopher -- some just moved in from across the street, where they've been plaguing our neighbors for years. Killer (who's only a little over a year old) has spent time over there with her head down a hole, and now she has some of her very own to play with. :eyes:

Hekate

[Jennicut]

35. Daisy has brought home 6 mice so far. The winter is the only thing that slowed her down.

[jmowreader]

52. Rat would be better than cat, I'm here to tell ya

Rats are omnivorous. Cats specialize in meat. IIRC there are peoples in Asia and Africa that specialize in eating rats--they're a favored food among grain farmers. The logic, as you may have guessed, is by eating the rats feeding on your grain bins, you're eating the produce of your labors one way or another.

[Jennicut]

62. I wonder if rat tastes better?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

38. This thread is useless without the recipe.

[jdp349]

40. Double standards are stupid therefore so are a lot of people. Nuff said.

[Robb]

41. But for eating dogs, Peary might not have reached the Pole.

People are overly sentimental of their pets.

[QC]

46. Cat: the other white meat. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

67. awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...

[AnnieBW]

74. Or gray. Or tabby.

Do Siamese cats taste good with peanut sauce and lemongrass?

[Dr.Phool]

47. Finally, a use for cats!

But, I knew that all along.

[slampoet]

56. Cat Meat is Almost NEVER eaten except in times of famine. Period.

My source is the writer of the book Strange Foods by Jerry Hopkins.

In the 1999 NPR interview to promote the book he was asked if eating cats and dogs was a commonplace thing.

Hopkins said that in his world travels he had run across many civilizations that ate dog but that none of the places that he went to or researched had any history of eating cats.

Hopkins went on to add that there have been cases of people eating all kinds of animals during times of famine, but that he was completely unable to find any solid evidence that cats were eaten in times of plenty by any culture.


The chef who has been sacked in Italy is should be more in trouble because he was using the cat comments to Slur Tuscans, and because he didn't say that in all likelihood, the last time he had cat meat was probably during the post-WWII food shortages.

[pleah]

60. Heeeerrrreeee kitty, kitty, kitty.......

I could never do that. I love kitty cats. :)

[Cronus Protagonist]

61. Finally! A use for cats!

We could use a few cat eaters in my building, it's infested with them.

[Martin Eden]

63. What the heck is wrong with

eating pussy?

Sorry, I couldn't resist :blush:

[xchrom]

70. I don't know much -- but -- I am not my ancestors.

I don't eat cats and as was sometimes acceptable
I don't eat my neighbors.

I do eat meat and actively work for healthier raising slaughter standards.

Which again distinguishes me from my ancestors -- who would
never do that.

[AnnieBW]

72. My vet's office used to be next door to a Chinese Restaurant

Seriously. I used to tell my kitties that if they didn't behave for the vet, they'd wind up as the Special of the Day.

:D

Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately - she closed her practice and combined with another local animal hospital.

[slampoet]

77. My vet is located between a strip-join-porn store and a liquor store.

She has lots of catty jokes about it.