by Iron Chef Leftovers
I don’t understand the outrage over Beppe Bigazzi’s comments on Italian TV about eating cat. Is it really so different than eating pig, cow, chicken or any other non-endangered animal. Look, for centuries, peasants would eat just about anything as a source of protein – songbirds, cats, rats, rabbits, etc. If you were a poor farmer and you raised livestock, you sold off just about all of the animal and ate almost none of it. That is how you were able to afford to live. Hell, horse is still regularly eaten in Europe. Everyone should read Angleo Pelligrini’s “The Unprejudiced Palate” if you want to understand why people eat things that you don’t necessarily find in your local mega mart.
If anyone is offended, please come off it. I am sure you are offending several hundred million Hindi when you take a bite into that steak or a couple million Jews when you eat your bacon or 6 or 7 vegans when you eat anything that is not a plant.
If it tastes good, was humanely raised and slaughtered and is not endangered, I don’t see the issue here.
FlatbreadGarden 
I thought cat had stringy meat? I can’t imagine that it tastes like chicken. Maybe more like a lizard or something.
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Here’s an excerpt from the AP story. Now it makes sense — he’s describing cat meat in a stew. I’d guess it’s a really long, slow process.
ROME – Italian state TV has suspended a cooking show host who shocked the nation by saying cat stew is a Tuscan delicacy he swears he has enjoyed many times.
RAI TV confirmed on Wednesday that it had suspended Beppi Bigazzi, the 77-year-old host of a popular morning program that offers food tips and recipes in a country fiercely proud of its cuisine.
When his 27-year-old female co-host looked stunned as Bigazzi said he has eaten cat stew “many times,” the white-haired, grandfather figure defended his tastes.
Bigazzi claimed cat stew was a Tuscan specialty near the Arno river valley, but co-host Elisa Isoardi looked so embarrassed she ducked behind a cart of fresh salad greens whose healthy virtues the two were supposed to be chatting about.
“Cat, soaked for three days in the running water of a stream” in Tuscany “comes out with its meat white, and I assure you — I have eaten it many times — that it is a delicacy,” Bigazzi continued.
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I guess I should have included a link to the article. Bigazzi is from a different generation – he probably grew up poor, he definitly grew up in the lean years of the war and it probably wasn’t all that uncommon to cook a cat. The show’s host probably gets all of her food from the supermarket and doesn’t realize that people do eat things that are not pork, chicken or beef. Cat and dog are 2 things I would like to try at some point in my life, mostly out of curiosity.
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A good alternate title for this piece could have been:
“Let Them Eat Cat”
The post has been updated to include a link to the story and to the book that was referenced.
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