Several of Manhattan's swankiest restaurants are hoping their four-star scraps will lead to better-tasting chickens.
The restaurants, including Per Se, Gramercy Tavern, Daniel, Jean-Georges and The Modern, are sending their unused vegetable peelings and bread to a chicken farm in Pennsylvania's Amish Country for use as feed.
The restaurants hope that the more than 30 pounds of trimmings they generate each week will make the chickens taste like they were raised on a French farm.
"They eat a bit of everything like the farms in France," said Ariane Daguin, the CEO of the company that raises and delivers the chicken.
The hens, a French heritage breed imported from Gascony, are raised on grains and indulged on restaurant leftovers for 30 days before being slaughtered.
The first of the table-to-farm-to-table chickens should be delivered to New York restaurants next week, Daguin said.
Foodie tourists visiting New York said they liked the idea.
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"I think it sounds like a great idea," said one woman. "I actually live on a farm in Virginia and that's what our chickens eat."
The chickens will be on menus soon at Per Se, the Gramercy Tavern, Daniel, David Burke Townhouse, Jean-Georges, Eleven Madison Park and The Modern.
