Restaurant puts kibosh on horsemeat entrees

From the NY Times:

M. Wells Dinette, the highly anticipated reincarnation inside MoMA PS1 of a celebrated Queens restaurant, has been open for only five days, but its chef and owners have already removed a controversial item planned for the menu.

The restaurant’s chef and co-owner, Hugue Dufour, said Thursday that he would not serve horse meat tartare, in response to outrage from animal rights advocates and concern about legal ramifications from health officials.

Mr. Dufour, a French Canadian who ate and cooked horse meat when he trained as a chef in Montreal, had not imported the meat yet from Canada. But after he announced his plans in an interview with New York magazine two weeks ago, animal rights advocates formed two petitions through change.org that drew approximately 1,300 signatures demanding its removal.

Mr. Dufour and Ms. Obraitis said they had been receiving angry e-mails and postings that threatened their personal safety. The museum, they said, also received letters demanding that its upscale cafeteria not serve the meat.