The production of foie gras is an age-old tradition whose origins can be traced back over 4,500 years. A fresco painting discovered in an ancient Egyptian tomb showing a slave feeding figs to a goose is proof of these distant roots. (Saqqara necropolis)

The banks of the Nile are a crossing point for migrating geese and ducks, giving the Egyptians ample opportunity to observe the ease with which the birds built up fatty reserves to sustain them on the journey home. They found a way of reproducing this natural tendency of web-footed birds using phase feeding (represented on several Egyptian tombs).