The French government banned sales of beef parts susceptible to the disease, like brains and spinal cords, for human consumption in 1996. Triperies, butcher shops dealing exclusively in organ meats, went out of business. Bistros pulled classic fare like kidneys with whole-grain mustard and brains meunière from their menus. Even when the ban was lifted in stages over the next few years, the stigma remained.

But in some quarters, the exotica of animal body parts has once again become chic. That is certainly the case at Auguste, a Michelin one-star restaurant in the Seventh Arrondissement, where the Académie members held our lunch.

I went early to spend time with Gaël Orieux, the 40-year-old chef, in his kitchen. Mr. Orieux was working on a calf’s brain that had been blanched and treated with vinegar. He carved out bits of coagulated blood and sliced the brain into one-third-inch-thick pieces for roasting. “It’s like butter, the texture,” he said, urging me to touch.

He cut up small pieces of andouillette, a sausage he had made with pig intestines, pig ear and foot and, for good measure, gelatinous combs of cocks. Using onion confit as a glue, he topped the pieces with vinegared beet slices.

Then he turned his attention to the animelles, the elegant appellation given to lamb testicles. He trimmed the excess tissue off the various-size organs, then peeled off their skins. “All that is not beautiful must go,” he said.

I thought I must go, too. As beautiful as the animelles might be, I wanted to create a bit of psychological distance before eating them.