I met up with friends who had dinner last night at the Plaza Athenee brasserie (not the 3 star Michelin). The brasserie had US beef advertised on it. It was clearly written on the menu. I thought US beef was banned in Europe because of the hormornes and antibiotics they are fed. Has this changed? I haven't read anything about the lifting of the ban, maybe someone out there knows. Just curious.

American beef isn't banned.

Beef that fails to conform to European safety standards is banned: the EU-15 imported about €500,000 worth of beef from the US in the first nine months of 2008.

Presumably there's one or two US producers with the gumption to feed animals with real food and not pump them full of hormones. Free enterprise obviously isn't altogether dead.

Organic, grass fed beef is a booming new 'green' industry here in the states. No hormones, no corn, no antibiotics and the cattle are actually given a better life than it's mass marketed relatives.... no mass confinement in feed lots, they get to wander about through fields as cows should. And they are not slaughtered in the big-box slaughterhouses, so conditions around the cattle's deaths and the butchering of the meats are more humane and sanitary. Proven far healthier - for meat eaters of which I am not one - than factory farming products.
So - yes, there are ranches that export their meats to European countries that refuse the GMO corn fed antibiotic and hormone riddled poor excuses for food that consumers in the states don't seem at all bothered to eat.

IMO French bistros and restos are very careful to identify the origin of the beef that they serve. Often code words are used on menus such as "Limousin" or Charolais" to alert the consumer to the fact that they are eating French produced cattle rather than the hormone and antibiotic raised animals of North America.

The admission of Plaza Athenee would seem to be counter-productive unless they are counting on the tourist trade.

"code words are used on menus such as "Limousin" or Charolais" to alert the consumer to the fact that they are eating French produced "

Simply untrue.

American beef is a non-issue as far as European consumers are concerned. To all intents and purposes, there isn't any (€500,000 of imports amounts to less steak than one decent sized New York steakhouse gets through in nine months. It's probably about a week's worth in some places in Texas). Limousin or Charollais means - Limousin or Charollais.

Breeds taste different from each other (look at the proportion of English sausages, never mind prime beef, these days that have their breed described) and - together with the way an animal's been reared - matter in Europe. Defining the breed doesn't even mean the beef's not - real horror of horrors in France - English.

The awful truth the US agribusiness lobby, and its braindead lobbyists in Congress, can't get its head around is that no-one, outside the Trade Protection directorate in Brussels and the Euro agribusiness lobby, gives a flying fart about US beef.

here we go getting all preachy about american beef.

in general, beef in america is infinitely better than here in europe. in america it is very easy to get a good steak in a restaurant without paying a lot of money. simply not true here.

i don't know where some of us get the idea that all beef in america is 'hormone pumped'. flanner is right, americans can choose between organic, natural and the more factory approach. and that's a good thing. we certainly have a lot of factory animal raising horrors of our own that we can be worrying about. scientists are not in agreement about the 'harms' of hormone beef.

cigarettes are proven, and without dispute, to be far more dangerous. we certainly smoke a lot in europe and do a lot of other harmful things. but we often put it down to 'joie de vivre' or some other foolishness. so why do we get so preachy about american beef?

so why not just relax and enjoy the far tastier american beef ...like with everything...in moderation. let's stop being so uptight and enjoy ourselves. for christ's sake we're europeans...let's throw caution to the wind and have a little joie de vivre. let's force feed our geese to make some lovely foie gras. let's eat raw beef with a raw egg on top and call it tartare. let's just drink wine, smoke and live like good europeans are supposed to. what's the matter with us? isn't it ironic?

I don't know, I don't remember French bistros and cafes identifying the origin of the beef when I was there a few months ago. Limousin isn't a code word, it's a province and an important identifier of a certain kind of beef that some people want, that's why some restaurants name that, as far as I'm concerned. I think it's regulated, of course, as to what you can call that. It's a lean beef. Lots of French food products are like that, they want to know the type or origin of all kinds of things, it's not to using code words.

>>>>>
Often code words are used on menus such as "Limousin" or Charolais" to alert the consumer to the fact that they are eating French produced cattle rather than the hormone and antibiotic raised animals of North America.
>>>>>

oh yeah, the others are right... out of all the bs on this thread (and there is a lot of it)...this one needs deserves a special place.

where do people dream up these things?

In French boucheries and supermarkets, you have a choice of breeds, usually Angus and Charolais. Angus beef is tastier but a little harder, while Charolais is extremely tender but not that flavourful.

Breed does not say anything about region. Angus is raised all over the world: in Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, USA..

As a travelled European, I would share the opinion that U.S. Prime Beef is the best of the world (maybe except Japanese Kobe beef) and some European gourmet restaurants offer aged U.S. beef.

For us consumers, it is hard to find U.S. beef in stores, but very easy to buy Argentine or Brazilian beef which is very popular in Europe (and, BTW, less expensive than European-raised beef).

So . . when I see Kobe Beef on the menu at my local . . is that a codewrod?

Who cares? When you are in Paris you should be eating foie gras and Laduree macaroons anyway, followed by a Bollinger chaser.

Thin

. . no Horse?

I also don't know where this idea came from that U.S. beef is automatically pumped up with hormones, etc. I've been hearing this for decades. But also, for decades, here in California, at many of our markets, beef without harmones, etc has been available. I remember it being available at Mrs. Goochs (L.A.) way back in the 70s or 80s.

Although I haven't eaten meat/poultry since the mid 70s, I remember that U.S. beef was very good. I grew up eating it and very high quality beef.

I couldn't get beef of the same quality for the many summers that I lived in and visited many other countries. Happy Travels!

Whilst hormone free beef may be available in the US, it's very hard to get it outside the US as the US beef business doesn't offer it except as a gourmet item

What is normally offered is the jazzed up beef that no sane person would want to eat in a hundred years

So the fault is easy to assign - US beef business

The common usage of a term in the US cannot be applied to France. While Charolais defines a breed in the US, it has quite a different meaning in France. "Charolaise" is an AOC appellation designating a breed of beef animal, a method of rearing and feeding and region where the animal has been raised. AOC is protected by law in a similar way that "Champagne" has a restrictive and protective meaning in France. The same is true of Fin Gras du Mézenc AOC
Charolaise AOC
Anjou-Maine AOC
and hundreds of other AOC designations.
http://tinyurl.com/6fdmz5

Similarly the use of Label Rouge designations have particular meanings regarding beef origins. : Boeuf Charolais du Bourbonnais, Boeuf Charolais Terroir, Boeuf fermier de l'Aubrac, Limousine Tendre Saveur (en cours), Vedelou (veau)
Boeuf du Cantal "Saveurs d'Espace", Boeuf des Hauts Plateaux (en cours)
Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) : Boeuf "Fin Gras du Mézenc" (démarche en cours)
Aubrac, Charolaise, Limousine, Salers

V.B.F. has been used in France since 2000 after the over turning of the US beef ban in 1999.
http://tinyurl.com/anmsgh

VBF (Viande Bovine Française—French Beef) is used on menus as is AOC, "Charolaise", Limousin, boeuf d'Aubrac, etc.

One of Fodorites favourite restaurants, L'AOC, bases their whole presentation on this:
Côte de bœuf de Normandie ( V.B.F.) pour 2 personnes
Entrecôte de Normandie ( V.B.F.)
Côte de bœuf Simmenthal de Bavière pour 2 personnes
Entrecôte Simmenthal de Bavière
Tartare d’ ONGLET de boeuf haché à la commande
Tartare de bœuf (V.B.F) haché à la commande
http://tinyurl.com/ahbjrw

As for the assertion that &quot;beef in america is infinitely better than here in europe&quot; it is a matter of what <b>better</b> means. If better simply means <b>tenderer</b>, I would agree.

That's because the growth hormones make the meat all mushy -- of course it is tender because the poor animals have been grown twice as fast and are freaks of nature.

Robjame, very interesting reading and I do enjoy a good entrecote + frites in Paris.

Do you think the US meat is tenderer because they use infra-red light on their beef (not sure why, for quick aging?) as I believe this system is banned in France.

http://jas.fass.org/cgi/content/full/86/1/211

If you scroll down and see the pictures, not for the faint-hearted.

Perhaps the Plaza Athenee, as one reply said, caters to the tourist market.

No idea why a french restuarant would advertise US beef. Bisarre unless it is to attract US visitors.

Most French people would be more interested in the AC derivation of the meat.

Interestingly in my market town in UK (where we have no AC rules) we expect to see the name of the farm and probably the name of the animal on the menu.

&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;
No idea why a french restuarant would advertise US beef. Bisarre unless it is to attract US visitors.
&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

maybe they aren't as xenophobic as you are assuming they are. perhaps one or two have travelled to the US and gained an appreciation for the lovely steaks.

let's all not be so uptight about it. kerouac...are foie gras geese not freaks of nature? doesn't eating raw meat and eggs present some risk? i do it but i certainly wouldn't deny the risks. doesn't smoking cause cancer and smoke contains all kinds of horrible chemicals? isn't drinking even fairly moderate amounts of alcohol seen by some experts to be harmful?

what's our problem here. the steaks are lovely and in moderate amounts they certainly won't harm you. anyway, eating too much red meat (hormone or not) is harmful.

people...although we love to lecture the americans on this, let's step back and appreciate just how foolish this is....and just go and enjoy a little joie de vivre!

After the BSE scare in Ireland ,most restaurants had signs on the table stating Irish beef only sold here. People are interested these days on the sourcing of where meat and most foods come from and there is a surge in organic and Artisan foods in Ireland. I thoink the slow food movement is strong imn Europe and eating seasonal and more &quot;natural &quot; foods. Just beacuse there are no hormones in a cow does not make it organic either!

Personally I would avoid a steak that had hormones in it as I think over a period of time it will effect us. Saying that i probably ate loads as a kid in America not knowing what was in it. I am far more food concious these days.