Days before the French president’s death, hours before the New Year, moments before a napkin was removed from his face, François Mitterrand ate two birds whole—bones, beaks, and all.
If you ever see an old photo of restaurant diners wearing napkins over their faces, you are witnessing the consumption of rare, endangered ortolan bunting birds
. They are smallish songbirds, each weighing less than an ounce (see Figure 18-1). Skinny and rather plain-looking, the birds would not seem to be obvious targets for gourmands. But, in a true act of culinary barbarism, the ortolans ...
