All about poultry

The chicken has always been the symbol of prosperity. Politicians from Henry of Navarre to President Roosevelt have harped on its regular appearance at the dinner table as the ultimate aim for the masses.

Today, we have chickens en masse. New techniques of breeding and new methods of marketing have made this old-time luxury an eveyday snack... but with the usual penalty. The birds we have now are far removed from the free-ranging chickens of Henri IV or even of Roosevelt’s depression years. In plumping them up, mass production has removed some of the taste, a little of the pleasure... and it has faced us all with a new challenge. But with imagination and skill we can do much to give back to chicken dishes the splendour they had when they only reached the tables of kings.