This week a controversial chef is urging the great British public to sample a fabulous new meat. But instead of a buying bonanza, the chef's comments have provoked outrage because the meat in question is horse. Even the staunchest meat eaters are up in arms. Says a rival chef: 'I would never eat horse meat and would never serve it to my customers. It's not part of our food culture. It's unthinkable.' But aren't we being just the teeniest bit irrational? After all, in France and Belgium, two of our closest neighbours, there are whole shelves of horse meat alongside the beef and chicken. Here we eat lamb and pig, duck, even deer, ostrich and kangaroo. If we eat these, what is logically different about horse? Nothing.