Cuisine Canada Scene

Like many chefs, Martin Kouprie, co-owner of Pangaea Restaurant in Toronto, is always looking for variety on his menus and feels limited in his choice of land animals. “Everyone does beef, lamb, even caribou,” he says. Fine-grained and tender, horsemeat was a natural choice for Kouprie, but he recently pulled it from his restaurant’s menu. Why? Canada lacks a grading system and he can’t find a source that provides food-purpose-bred meat. “Everything available is work or race horse. Or someone’s pet,” Kouprie says.

Kouprie discovered the point-of-origin issues while doing research for his upcoming cookbook. An ingredient-driven book with the working title of Pangaea: Seasonally-Inspired Dishes, each recipe starts with the story of the main ingredient. “I talk about the people behind the scenes,” Kouprie says. “I know the fisherman, the farmer, the forager, the gatherers. I can trace all the ingredients I use back to the source. But horsemeat? They’re somewhat secretive.”

This raised reg flags for Kouprie and lead to a highly-controversial article that touched an emotional nerve and left some readers debating the ethics of eating horse flesh. But for Kouprie, the issue isn’t whether or not it’s right to eat horemeat, the issue is whether or not horsemeat in Canada is fit for human consumption.

To encourage transparency, Kouprie and other chefs concerned with point-of-origin and sustainability are lobbying the Canadian government for proper regulation. Attached is a copy of Kouprie’s letter for anyone who cares to use it to join the lobbying efforts.

Horsemeat letter

Government Recipients List

Does horsemeat slip between the cracks because politicians feel it’s too emotionally charged? Or is this just one of many ingredients whose source of origin is uncomfortably vague?