After nearly two decades of local foie gras and duck, Au Bon Canard founders are retiring to France

Jared Kaufman, Pioneer Press
·3 min read

The founders of one of the U.S.’s only foie gras producers — Au Bon Canard, based in Caledonia, Minn. — are retiring this year.

Christian and Liz Gasset, who started the duck farm about 17 years ago, are moving back to Christian’s native Gascony, France, after their production season ends this spring. The couple is passing their land and the business to a younger neighbor, with whom they’ve long been close, and Christian Gasset said he’s been training him to take over foie gras production.

Foie gras is made from the livers of ducks that have been fattened through a process known as “gavage,” typically translated as force-feeding, during the last few weeks of their lives. And making foie gras is an extraordinarily specialized skill: Just three companies in the U.S., including Au Bon Canard, produce it. In France, Christian Gasset learned the trade at the only school in the world, he said, that teaches the full process from duckling to dish.

Of U.S. foie gras producers, Au Bon Canard is the smallest and most artisanal, by orders of magnitude. In contrast to more industrialized force-feeding methods, Christian Gasset sits each duck on his lap individually and feeds it by hand using a small tube. Every Friday, Liz Gasset herself drives three hours each way to drop off the company’s products at restaurants in the Twin Cities.

Christian Gasset is nearing 60 and can’t do farm chores the way he used to, he said. He’ll need knee surgery. He hasn’t lived close to his family in decades. A friend’s sudden death from cancer was “a wake-up call” for the Gassets; they’ve worked hard, and now they need to relax, he said.

“We’ve put lots of energy in this project,” Christian Gasset said. “And we were successful in our work, staying small and trying to do a quality product. That was our goal from the beginning, and we never changed that. But you have to turn the page.”

In honor of Christian and Liz Gasset’s retirement, chef Russell Klein is hosting a tribute dinner at Meritage, a longtime restaurant partner of Au Bon Canard. The Gassets will be in attendance, and Klein hopes the evening conveys his and diners’ gratitude for them.

“For Christian and Liz, they don’t get that many opportunities to watch people enjoy their work,” Klein said. “So to watch a room full of people enjoy their work is hopefully a nice little capstone to realize the impact they’ve had.”

The five-course meal is Wednesday, March 15, at Meritage in St. Paul, and tickets are $165 per person with an optional $85 wine pairing to accompany the tasting menu.

Each course — including dessert — will feature Au Bon Canard duck in some way, with a particular emphasis, of course, on foie gras. As he does regularly, Klein plans to use every part of the bird: duck consomme with foie gras pelmeni and confit duck heart, honey-thyme duck breast, sturgeon poached in duck fat.

“Our basic philosophy is, buy really good stuff and don’t mess it up, and Au Bon Canard is really the epitome of that,” Klein said. “I can easily say Au Bon Canard is easily the best foie gras in the world, and we’ve been incredibly privileged to have it in Minnesota.”

Klein will miss the Gassets in Minnesota, he said — but “now I have someone else to go visit in France!”

If you go

What: Five-course duck dinner to honor retiring Au Bon Canard founders Christian and Liz Gasset, who will be in attendance

When: Multiple seating times; Wednesday, March 15. Call 651-222-5670 to make reservations

Where: Meritage: 410 St. Peter St.

Cost: $165 per person; $85 optional wine pairings

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