Egg-cellence

Egg-Cellence Curating Culinary-Grade Caviar

By Renee Dee

Photo by Natalia Lisovskaya / Shutterstock

Caviar represents true luxury to fivestar chefs worldwide and passionate foodies who love its distinctive, salty flavor and the elegant experience of enjoying it. Wondering what you need to know about caviar tasting?

First, make sure you’ve acquired authentic caviar. Caviar is salted fish roe, but not all salted fish roe is caviar. Caviar refers to the salt-cured fish eggs from different species of sturgeon harvested from the Caspian Sea, including Osetra, Sevruga and Beluga. If it comes from another fish, it’s not true caviar.

Then there’s the decision on what to drink: Should caviar be served with a crisp, bubbly Brut Champagne or ice-cold ussian vodka eally, it’s your choice, as both have the acidity to cut through this deliciously salty, oily palate pleaser.

The finest caviar should taste neither fishy nor overly salty. Connoisseurs look for shiny, fine-grained translucent spheres, and they should burst or pop sharply in your mouth when the caviar is at optimum freshness. The larger, shinier and more perfect the spheres are, the higher they are in quality. Caviar is best served very cold and raw.

A proper caviar tasting is all about the Mother of Pearl spoon, and true caviar aficionados own and use a caviar server, usually a small, beautiful silver dish with an inner glass dish that nests on flaked ice to hold the caviar.