Savor the aroma of garlic chicken served over pasta or lightly smoked white meat tuna, blue crab and Atlantic clam.
Ready to lift a fork? Move aside instead. This feast is designed for a cat.Haute cuisine has arrived for America's cats, dogs, small animals and birds.
Pet food companies are not only improving research to meet the nutritional requirements of pets but also are playing on pet owners' emotions when they sell their products.
As far as anyone knows, a dog doesn't care if its treat comes in the shape of Godiva chocolates, french fries or schnitzels; it just wants it to taste good. The shapes, colors and gourmet flavors are designed for owners who treat their pets as members of the family.
Lick Your Chops' Pet Panache appeals to the owners' taste buds and sense of fairness when marketing its International Accents Gourmet Treats for Cats and Dogs.
"As humans, we are able to experience and enjoy varied tastes of foods from cultures around the world," the package reads. "And what a pleasure they are. But our pets have not been so fortunate 'til now."
The treats are formed into cookies, lollipops, goldfish, nachos, English crumpets and something called Doggone Bagels.
J.J. Sterling plays on an owner's tendency to split an ice cream or cookie with the dog of the house. His product, Bo's Bone, is an all-natural, bone-shaped cookie "you share with your pet."
The banana, raisin and fruit mix that Sun Seed of Bowling Green, Ohio, markets for large birds looks like a quality trail mix for humans.
Small animals haven't been ignored.
Vita Kraft of Bound Brook, N.J., makes its food sound good, yet nutritious, with such names as Tasty Morsels with Chlorophyll, Yogurt Drops with Minerals and Small Animal Cake with Peanuts.
Pet food distributers sampled the growing lines of specialty foods and haute cuisine at the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association national trade show in Indianapolis last month.
Haute Canine and Haute Feline by L. Coffey Ltd. of Minneapolis went beyond specialty foods packaged in ribbon-wrapped jars and gold packages. The food is also packaged with diaries that can be given to owners when a new puppy or kitten arrives in the household. Bow ties and pearl necklaces with dog bone or fish charms are also offered as gifts to pets.
Giving pets human characteristics "is the name of the game in new pet products," said Loa Friedman, director of public relations for the association. "The haute-cuisine foods are a natural outgrowth of the tendency to project human qualities, needs and desires onto pets."
Health food-conscious humans have transferred their concern for health to their pets to feed a market of food lines for overweight dogs and cats. And the human trend to gourmet and international foods has also transferred to canine and feline feeds.
Andrew Krance, better known as Chef Andriu, first began preparing foods for cats when he was chef on a yacht docked in Greece. No matter that he can't remember the name of the California vineyard operator who owned the yacht; he remembers there were cats.
"I started making different dishes for cats and I noticed their coats got shinier," he said.
Years later he developed the canned food, now sold in 38 states and in such flavors as smoked turkey, stew bouillabaisse, chicken and pasta, country lamb stew, prime beef and rice and smoked tuna in crab.
Sterling started producing his bone-shaped cookie as a lark and now he's producing it in gingerbread, oatmeal, peanut butter and carob chip flavors.
The cookies are really nothing more than a cookie for humans, but in bone shape.
"It's not dog food, it's human food in the shape of a bone," Sterling said. "It is as healthy as any other cookie would be for your dog."
In fact, Sterling warns the cookies shouldn't be regularly substituted for dog food because they haven't been nutritionally balanced for the dog. The only concession is that carob chips are used in place of chocolate chips, which are toxic for dogs.
"People get the idea they can do more for their pets," said Karen Payne, manager of cat star Princess Kitty and editor of Pet Business magazine.
"Perhaps the animal won't care if you have 50 different amusing shapes. But people like it."