Midlife guide to...

faux gras

This foie gras tastes unusual. Have you added something to it?

Quite the reverse, actually – it’s more of a case of something being taken out.

Like... the flavour?

Excuse you. The once-requisite duck or goose liver has been excised and replaced with walnuts, lentils and shallots to form an unabashedly millennial delicacy dubbed “faux gras”.

Have they grown tired of smashed avocado on sourdough bread already?

Perhaps, though reinventing the controversial pâté, which animal rights campaigners have long criticised for the force-feeding of animals in order to fatten their livers, may not be a bad thing.

So who’s behind this new faux fare?

A Michelinstarred chef, as it happens. Alexis Gauthier – who trained under Alain Ducasse and is chef patron of his eponymous restaurant in Soho – came up with the recipe, which also features beetroot and mushrooms.

Fair enough, letting chefs go tonto in the larder is part of the job description (lest we forget Heston Blumenthal’s snail porridge). But will faux gras really be coming to a table near us soon?

Certainly, if social media is anything to go by. Since vegan cookery duo Ian Theasby and Henry Firth – better known to their 1.6m Facebook followers as Bosh! – posted a video of themselves making the recipe, it has racked up nearly 5m views.

Ah, but a quick glance on social media isn’t the same as whipping walnuts into a frenzy in your own kitchen, is it?

No, but the dish has the added benefit of not being subject to a possible import ban when Britain leaves the EU. I’ll be sure to give it top billing on my Brexit party menu.