Cook and Eat with Ryan: The Food Blog of an 11-Year-Old Kid (8/4/09)
“It is really interesting.”
The Eye in Dining (7/31/09)
“The more I ponder the issues raised by books including Mark Caro’s The Foie Gras Wars, sympathetic to aspects of both sides of the debate regarding whether or not animals should die for our pleasure, and the more I continue to eat meat and delicacies that some might consider politically incorrect, the more I realize that the debate itself encompasses two persistent sides of our human nature. “
Creative Loafing (7/17/09)
“If you want to cut cruelty from your diet, start with supermarket veal. Then chicken. Then pork. Then start thinking about giving up that perfectly seared slab of luscious foie gras. But read The Foie Gras Wars first.”
Los Angeles Times/”Daily Dish” (7/6/09)
“I can’t believe I ever put the book down. Admittedly, the topic sounds like hard going, but this is so well-written and so balanced in its treatment that it is, improbably, a real page turner. It has everything: fascinating characters, devious deeds, wit, suspense, science.”
Eat All About It (7/6/09)
“He knows his subject as intimately as only a guy who’s stuck his hand up a duck’s rib cage to pull out its liver can know it.”
The Christian Science Monitor (6/29/09)
“I admire how Caro managed to enjoy the challenge of taking on ‘the moral whiplash’ of researching such a controversy. He avoids delivering absolute conclusions in the end, leaving readers to draw their own.”
Gothic Epicures VinCuisine (6/25/09)
“Food Book of the Month!…Caro crafts a good read about how we all ignored what we know about what we eat.”
The Huffington Post/Bruce Friedrich (6/24/09)
“Caro’s book is a fun, fast-paced, personality driven look at the foie gras industry. He is fair — in terms of personalities — to both sides. What the book is not, disappointingly, is a review of the scientific evidence regarding foie gras production.”
The Alphabetical Happy Hour (5/14/09)
“I love food so much that I instinctively recoil from anything that limits culinary possibilities. But I also like to think of myself as a Good Person, as most of us do, which is why I enjoyed the evenhanded exploration of the ethics of foie gras in Mark Caro’s book.”
Popjournalism (5/6/09)
“The Foie Gras Wars is well-written, speaking eloquently about both sides of the rather controversial issue and offering the reader a chance to make up their own mind.”
Barnes & Noble Review (4/30/09)
“His tone is strident, populist, sarcastic, and offensive, as when he coins crass nicknames for horrific undercover abuse videos, like ‘Rat Munching on Ducks’ Bloody Ass Wounds.’”
Found By a Friend (4/19/09)
“In Foie Gras Wars, Chicago Tribune entertainment reporter Mark Caro expands upon reporting surrounding Chicago’s controversial ban of Foie Gras in 2006 to craft a masterpiece on mallards (and their livers).”
New York Times Book Review (4/17/09)
“Caro, a reporter for The Chicago Tribune and an engaging, funny writer, makes a palatable case for this luxury as an entry point into today’s strangely high-stakes food culture….[F]atty duck liver turns out to make a surprisingly interesting story.”
Washington Post (4/5/09)
“If you are looking for an animal-rights manifesto, however, or a ducky cri de coeur, Caro is not your man. He doesn’t document mass avian distress on the farms he visits (although one is tempted to ask him how he’d like to have a tube shoved down his throat three times a day.)”
Philadelphia City Paper (4/2/09)
“[A] hearty, funny and informative look into the complex struggle surrounding foie gras (fwah grah), or the fattened livers of ducks.”
Chicago Magazine (4/09)
“Q: You mentioned to me that your goal was to cause ‘ethical whiplash.’”
Eats.com (3/30/09)
“His witty accounts of a layman’s approach to foie gras, from lobe extraction to extravagant dinners to actual slaughter are illuminating.”
Village Voice (3/27/09)
“For well reported, facinating and entertaining insight to the foie gras controversy, read Marc [sic] Caro’s new book, The Foie Gras Wars.”
Time (3/26/09)
“I think if I wrote a book about brownies, I wouldn’t really be craving brownies right now either.”
Boston Globe (3/25/09)
“I haven’t had a Big Mac in decades, and I don’t eat veal. But if I’m at a restaurant that supports small farms, almost anything you get there is going to be more ethical. “
San Francisco Chronicle (3/22/09)
“Caro is a chummy, breezy writer, a skeptic and nobody’s fool….He has a touch for storytelling and characterization. His visits to the small French farms are transporting and his profiles of producers, purveyors, chefs and anti-foie partisans are gratifyingly complex and foible-ridden.”
Chicago Tribune (3/16/09)
“Daley spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard said she told the mayor about Burke’s account and that he could not recall any such conversation. ‘The mayor was like, “What? I don’t know what he’s talking about.” ‘ “
New City (3/15/09)
“[E]ven if you’re an animal-rights advocate, there’s no question that Mark Caro is a great human being.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer (3/15/09)
“His willingness to plunge himself into the story — I’m talking bloody hands here — is both enlightening and gripping. “
The Passionate Foodie (3/15/09)
“This is a fascinating story about an intriguing subject. Caro is a talented writer and you won’t be bored with his prose.”
Chicago Reader (sidebar) (3/12/09)
“I try to sort of get at this argument and say, well, look, let’s put this in some context here: if you argue that being a Tyson’s chicken is worse than being a foie gras duck—which I don’t know definitively but people certainly argue that—does that mean it’s OK to put a tube down a duck’s throat?”
Chicago Reader (3/12/09)
“In his smart, fascinating, and hilarious new book…he recounts how one reader in particular—49th Ward alderman Joe Moore—reacted, and how this set in motion a chain of events that would reverberate across the country.”
The Daily Beast (3/12/09)
“What saves the book from devolving into an overlong meandering magazine article is Caro’s breezy, effective style and his reporter’s eye for the absurd.”
PhilaFoodie (3/10/09)
“Regardless of whether you hold a fork or a picket sign in this debate, it won’t take long before you’re laughing out loud.”
Time Out Chicago (3/5-11/09)
“[H]e deftly points out the thing that’s missing from the debate, the thing that would give it the push it needs to rise to the level of intellectual debates such as Pepsi versus Coke: a justifiable reason to continue eating the stuff.”
New York Post (2/8/09)
“No, it isn’t the saga of Rod Blagojevich – but this scandal is much more delicious.”
Anthony Bourdain’s Blog (2/2/09)
“For a detailed account of this epic struggle, with a full accounting of who was good, bad, principled, hypocritical, cowardly or heroic when the chips were down, read Chicago Tribune reporter Mark Caro’s excellent and illuminating ‘The Foie Gras Wars.’”
