Foie Gras Donut Leads To Death Threats

With the 2004 ban of foie gras in California, the delicacy has become increasingly difficult to find in the Golden State. The law only forbids the sale of foie gras, so several restaurant owners have taken to giving it out for free instead. Psycho Donuts, just south of San Francisco, started giving out free foie gras doughnuts called "The Foie Bomb" on Friday in honor of National Doughnut Day, but the response wasn't entirely positive.

Supporters of the foie gras ban were outraged and went as far as leveling death threats against the shop's chef, Ron Levi. The ban was installed after ABC News revealed the horrors of how ducks were force-fed to fatten up their livers to produce the delicacy. All Levi had to say regarding the backlash, according to KPIX 5, was, "I guess when you push the envelope, it can get you in trouble sometimes."

The "Bomb," a round, one-bite doughnut filled with foie gras mousse, topped with sage, and injected with a honey, fig, and balsamic vinegar reduction, was given away only while supplies lasted on National Doughnut Day. Levi said they only planned on doing about 100 because his supplies of foie gras mousse were limited, according to ABC news, but the outrage did not seem to affect business too greatly. Between the shops two locations, about 400 were given out in the course of the day, and people began lining up at 6 a.m. to get one.

Charlie Ayers, the former executive chef for Google who helped collaborate on the doughnut, told ABC News, "I expect some people will be very happy [...] and some not so."

You can say that again.