A London restaurant has split opinion after serving up a ‘beak to feet menu’ by using up every part of a chicken – including its head and claws.
The eccentric menu at pop-up eatery Fowl, in St. James’s Market, boasted a £16 chicken leg corn dog as well as a £22 Le Grand Coq pie, filled with the bird’s heart, liver, wings and feet – and garnished with its head poking through the crust.
But the quirky dishes – created in a bid to reduce food waste and use up every part of an animal – have left foodies divided. Some commented: ‘Just no’ and ‘I draw the line, I just can’t have it looking at me,’ on a clip shared to Instagram to introduce the pie.
But a clip of the chicken feet corn dog was better received, with one person writing: ‘You guys are off the charts! Can’t wait to dine there,’ while another said: ‘Ridiculous. I must try this.’
It comes after former England international Andros Townsend, 32, who now plays for Luton Town after his stint at Everton, credited his nightly dinner of chicken feet with extending his career.
The eccentric menu at pop-up eatery Fowl, in St. James’s Market, boasted a £16 chicken leg corn dog (pictured) as well as a £22 Le Grand Coq pie, filled with the bird’s heart, liver, wings and feet – and garnished with its head poking through the crust
Meanwhile, the chicken feet corn dog is so popular at Fowl that they are said to be selling one for every table they serve.
To make the dish, executive head chef Jon Bowring, debones the thigh and leg of a bird, brines it, shapes it and then dips it into the batter before steaming it for three hours and deep frying the meat.
The exposed foot is left without batter and is instead made crispy thanks to a blowtorch, reported The Telegraph.
‘We clean the foot up, the nails are nicely trimmed and pruned, we’ve given it a manicure’, said the chef.
‘It’s one of those things that gets left out. Some places might use them in stocks, you get that nice gelatinous stock out of it,’ he added, before explaining what made a good chicken foot to cook.
‘Essentially one that doesn’t smell bad. You want quite a plump foot, with all the bones intact. Not too many feathers on it,’ the chef said.
Elsewhere on the menu – which changes each month thanks to a new guest chef making an appearance – was an £8 desert of chicken fat crème caramel finished with a chicken skin crumb. It also included triple-cooked wings.
It appears the chicken leg corn dog is still a feature on the November menu, however it’s unclear if the pie is still available.
But the quirky dishes – created in a bid to reduce food waste and use up every part of an animal – have left foodies divided. Some commented: ‘Just no’ and ‘I draw the line, I just can’t have it looking at me,’ on a clip shared to Instagram to introduce the pie (pictured)
But a clip of the chicken feet corn dog from Fowl (pictured) was better received, with one person writing: ‘You guys are off the charts! Can’t wait to dine there,’ while another said: ‘Ridiculous. I must try this.’
Some praised the pie on social media, claiming that meat-eaters should be happy to eat all parts of animals.
One wrote: ‘If you guys eat meat, but detach yourselves from the fact it’s a dead animal, it’s hypocritical really. Fair enough the presentation may be unpleasant to you but think about why you feel that way, and also why you’re wrong .’
A food blogger added: ‘Love this, forcing people to deal with the reality of where their food comes from. It’s real food for proper adults. Visiting in November and cannot wait.’
A third said: ‘This will be delicious and shows nose to tail eating, which we all need to get on board with.’
Others, however, weren’t so keen and branded the menu’s items as ‘gross’. One said: ‘Looks horrible, unnecessary to serve the chickens head whole like that.’
Another added: ‘Skip the chickens head. I have a rule about not eating things looking back at me from the plate.’
The pie was creation from Pierre Koffman – a guest chef to London’s Fallow restaurant that is running the pop-up.
Chef Will Murray told The Sun: ‘I like to describe Fowl as all the best things about chicken on one menu. This pie is a beak-to-feet concept. The feet are usually mainly exported. The head is often thrown in the bin.
Andros Townsend revealed an unusual dinner choice credited with extending his career
The Luton winger has revealed he eats chicken feet every night because of its nutrients
‘For us, the farmer has gone to all this work to rear this beautiful bird, so we’re using all of it.’ He added that the restaurant continued to ‘sell out of pies every day’ and that they ‘can’t keep up’.
Meanwhile, Andros Townsend revealed the unusual dinner choice he has every night, which has been credited with extending the winger’s career.
He told Fozcast – The Ben Foster Podcast: ‘For dinner every night, I eat chicken feet. Steamed chicken feet.’
When asked for the reasoning behind the dinner choice during a discussion about longevity, Townsend explained: ‘The collagen in the chicken feet, there’s the cartilage.
‘There’s basically so much goodness that now they put it into pills and put into shots. The daily pills you take at training is mainly from chicken feet and random stuff like that.’
Townsend explained that while the feet could be boiled, he puts them in a steam oven for 20 minutes. He says: ‘It’s lovely. Honestly, it’s like a chicken wing, but a chicken foot.
‘You obviously don’t eat the bone, but you have to eat as much of the cartilage and as close to the bone as possible. Like the nails, I have to eat close to the nails.’
