Food snobs fork over $225 for taste of heritage turkey

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By Gabriella Boston

The Bourbon Reds can cost up to $225 apiece.

No, we're not talking fancy oak-barrel-aged liquor.

We're talking heritage turkeys, relatively rare breeds of bird raised like their 19th-century counterparts -- free range, natural mating (mainstream turkeys these days are too fat to mate) and slow growing -- all part of the sustainable food production movement.

Tens of thousands of people, it turns out, are willing to shell out the cash for these high-priced turkeys for their Thanksgiving dinner tables, according to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Makes you wonder: Are no traditions -- however humble and hallowed by time -- safe from food snobbery?

"The blunt answer is, 'No, no foodstuffs are exempt from food snobs,' " said David Kamp, author of "The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation."

When it comes to heritage turkey in particular, a certain mystique surrounds them, Mr. Kamp said. Starting with their names. Bourbon Red? That sounds like a 1930s prizefighter, Mr. Kamp said.

The foodies who order these almost-worth-their-weight-in-gold fowl tend to have the most intimate knowledge about their "designer turkey," such as its slaughter date.

"With real food snobs, there's a certain fetishism -- knowing everything down to the pedigree of the bird -- that's absurd," Mr. Kamp said.

Food-snob excesses notwithstanding, Mr. Kamp readily acknowledged that we should be grateful that we've distanced ourselves from the dreadful 1950s and 1960s, when mass-produced, flavorless food was at its apex.

How did we get here culturally?