A saleswoman fills a box of caviar in the Petrossian store in Paris, December 27, 2019 (AFP / Archives / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
Homemade caviar pasta for Christmas or a tasting with a teaspoon of mother-of-pearl as an aperitif? Michelin-starred chefs love it, but the product is still perceived as snobbish and out-of-date in France, an image that brands seek to shatter.
“The image of caviar is calamitous: something for the rich, show off, a little out of date, that doesn’t make you want,” recognizes Françoise Boisseaud, general manager of Comptoir du Caviar.
In the shop a stone’s throw from the Madeleine in Paris, we are greeted by a young team in T-shirts who show the difference between black and iodized baeri black and iodized Siberian sturgeon caviar, golden grain schrenki or osciètre with notes of hazelnuts … We put grains on the hand and we taste it directly on the skin.
They cook “assembly” to eat on site, serving caviar with eggs, blinis or burrata.
– Accessibility of codes –
Once a month, “we organize evenings with a festive atmosphere, music, we eat standing up and we offer a 20% discount on the caviar on site”, tells AFP Jean-Christophe Viau, manager of the shop .
Minimalist decor, simple boxes with colorful labels and cooking done by non-professionals, it’s a bias. “We are betting on the accessibility of codes”, summarizes Françoise Boisseaud.
The Kaviari manufacture, which works with starred chefs and organizes intimate lunches in its premises to celebrate a prize list or the release of a gastronomy book from their starred chef clients, has just joined forces with Emmanuelle Jary who hosts a major program. very popular audience on Youtube, “It’s better when it’s good”.
Caviar “does not need embellishment, silverware, it should be eaten in the simplest possible way: no blinis, no bread, just the box and a teaspoon”, according to Mikaël Petrossian, third generation of the caviar dynasty (AFP / Archives / GEORGES GOBET)
The young woman who promotes accessible, committed and uninhibited cuisine and whose recipe book released in November is a great success, prepares creamy pasta with Kaviari caviar. By commenting on this video, one can gain half a kilogram of caviar.
“50 grams of caviar, 83 euros. I’m not saying it’s cheap, but you have a meal for two with caviar”, says Emmanuelle Jary.
– Culture to build –
100 years ago, caviar was unknown in France. It is the Armenian immigrants Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian who must first persuade César Ritz to put the precious sturgeon eggs of the Caspian on the menu of his palaces before opening their shop in Paris.
But from the interwar period until the disappearance of the sturgeons there was a French tradition in the Gironde (southwest), underlines Loïc Bienassis of the European Institute of the History and Cultures of the food in Tours.
Today “it is a culture to be built”, declares the historian to AFP. “Food must be good to think about,” he quotes anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.
Filling cans of caviar on a sturgeon farm in Charente-Maritime in 2016 (AFP / Archives / GEORGES GOBET)
The development of the sector in France since the ban on wild caviar in 2008, the drop in prices due to the switch to breeding and the growing interest in exceptional raw products could work in its favor.
“The great pastry chefs sell a cake at 10 euros, we sell a box of caviar of 20 grams for two from 26 euros”, emphasizes Françoise Boisseaud who hopes that the caviar will follow the path of the champagne that we consume more often than 30 years ago when it was booked for special occasions.
“In France, as soon as we talk about caviar, we automatically talk about money. People do not know enough. We can indulge ourselves with a 30 gram tin,” Stéphane Buron, two-starred chef, told AFP. of the Chabichou restaurant in Courchevel.
At home, there’s no need to reproduce your sea bass or scallops with caviar recipes, it’s also good with fondues, eggs or plain, says the chef.
“Caviar is sufficient on its own”, assures Mikaël Petrossian, third generation of the caviar dynasty.
“It doesn’t need any frills or silverware, it should be eaten in the simplest way possible: no blinis, no bread, just the box and a teaspoon.”
© 2021 AFP
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