News that Chicago had overturned the city’s foie gras ban, posted this afternoon on the Times’ Diner’s Journal blog, didn’t take long to reach Ariane Daguin, the founder of D’Artagnan and the nation’s leading proponent of foie gras consumption. Her letter, unabridged, after the jump.

If you’re anything like us, nothing says “romance” like ingesting eight courses of duck liver. And so there’s probably nowhere you and your Special Friend would rather be than at the D’Artagnan foie gras dinner being held at the Astor Center on Valentine’s Day. PETA public enemy Ariane Daguin, the founder of D’Artagnan and the nation’s most conspicuous pro–foie gras activist, has put together a dinner of foie gras accompanied with different vintages of Chateau Y’quem, the Sauterne wine prescribed by tradition to accompany foie gras everywhere. The dinner will start out with foie gras canapés, followed by foie gras terrine, pan-seared foie with port reduction, then foie-stuffed quail with black truffle shavings and a grape-and-black-truffle sauce, followed by – what else? — foie gras beignets. What libido could be unmoved by such a feast? And isn’t that worth $1,300 a couple? We think the question answers itself.

Perfect Pairings: D'Artagnan Foie Gras & Chateau d'Yquem - A Dinner
with Ariane Daguin [Astor Center]