joearay@gmail.com / +1 206 446 2425
Published Work

The Rise of the Blue-Footed Chicken, the Best Damn Bird You’ll Ever Eat


Seattle Weekly - Tuesday, June 16, 2015

image

In the world of chicken breeding, one bird represents the Holy Grail. Tall, noble and blue of foot, the name-protected poulet de Bresse can command prices well upward of 50 euros ($70) per bird in a Parisian market.

The famed French chicken is miles better than the Cornish cross – North America’s hormone-filled, mass-produced supermarket bird – but virtually none of the Bresse birds make it out of France.

Undaunted, British Columbian breeder Peter Thiessen — known to many as a tough bird himself — figured out how to breed a chicken that looked like a poulet de Bresse and, by some accounts, tasted better. It took him 11 years.


And that’s when things went squirrelly…

Read the Seattle Weekly cover story here.