for Gastronomy
Caviar is a much sought after delicacy for chefs and never ceases to fuel their imagination. For Michel star chef Kei Kobayashi, «Each time a new tin is opened, we discover a whole new taste – it’s a surprise! It is extremely rare, powerful yet delicate, with an inner beauty can be drawn out without cooking it.» Chef Eric Baffard (MOF) sees caviar as «the pinnacle of luxury cuisine, pure decadence, as each individual black pearl pops on your tongue, releasing their nutty,almond aroma.» As for three-time Michelin star laureate, Yannick Alleno, he simply dreams of «one last spoonful before I die!»
The French expression gauche caviar (‘caviar left’) is equivalent to the English ‘champagne socialists’, i.e. people who claim to be socially minded but enjoy a life of luxury; it is similar to the expression ‘have your heart on the left, but your wallet on the right’. Journalist and historian, Jean-François Kahn, founder of L’Evènement du Jeudi and Marianne once quipped, «The opposite of the ‘caviar left’, the ‘anchovy right’, just doesn’t exist.»
French caviar comes from the Gironde. It all started in 1920 in Saint-Seurin d’Uzet (Charente-Maritime). Legend has it that a Russian princess allegedly saw local fishermen throwing sturgeon eggs to the ducks. The young aristocrat explained to the fisherman how to turn it into ‘black gold’ and sent a caviar specialist in to walk them through the process. Following in the wake of Prunier, the town lived through a golden era that ran right up to the 1960’s. Where the Caviar and Sturgeon Museum now stands, there was once an inn where the likes of Jean Gabin, Mistinguett, and Maurice Chevalier would come to eat caviar on toast. Having all but disappeared by the end of the 20th century, caviar from Gironde made a comeback in 2007 thanks to fish restocking. Fish husbandry programmes saw some 120,000 sturgeon fry (baby fish) of the species Acipenser sturio released into the waters of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers.
Let nothing go to waste! Sturgeon are used for more than just their flesh and their roe: the swim bladder, once dried and dissolved in liquid, can be used to make a natural glue known as isinglass. Colourless, odourless, and highly effective, it was once used to piece together the various pieces of Stradivarius violins and is still used today in the restoration of artworks. As the story goes, in the late 19th century USA, isinglass was also used as a setting agent in cooking. Far cheaper than beef- or pork-based gelatine, it became a go-to ingredient in many kitchens and is the main reason behind the extensive list of gelatine-based recipes in American cuisine.
The Acipenser gueldenstaedtii is a mysterious sturgeon that produces light coloured eggs that vary between gold and silver, hence the name ‘Osetra Gold’. Its round and rolling grains produce soft, balanced flavours with cashew notes.
Caviar is much like wine, insofar as the grains of caviar vary from one variety to the next in terms of colour and size, in very much the same way as grapes do between different wine varietals. Baerii caviar are tiny, ebony coloured grains with earthy, dried fruit notes; while Osetra are plump and amber with strong hazelnut and sea flavours; Beluga are very large and grey with delicate buttery flavours.