Caviar Has Become the Costco Rotisserie Chicken of Fine Dining

Fish eggs are still a menu upsell, but they’re more popular than ever.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Caviare has become the cost co retisserie Chicken of fine
dining by Madison Derbyshire read by Mike Cooper. The gleaming
black and gold dining room at Kokkodok is browdy, and
it isn't even open for dinner yet. A table of
wrappers and podcast hosts are lingering over a late four
thousand dollar Caviare and champagne lunch. Executive chef Sung Cure

(00:22):
Kim says he doesn't mind. He wants his Manhattan restaurant,
notorious for its caviare top chicken nugget twenty eight dollars
per nugget, to be a place people come to celebrate.
As bird flu forces u S stores to ration ten
dollars a dozen chicken eggs, salt cured fish eggs have
become inescapable at high end restaurants. The slimy, briny spheres

(00:43):
can now be found atop sixty eight dollars sour cream
and onion dips in Nashville and seventy three dollars egg
salads in San Francisco. But while customer perception of Caviare
is a luxury worth shelling out for, has remained remarkably
resilient for over a century. The wholesale cost of caviare,
specifically the row from Sturgeon, has dropped considerably in the
past few years. There's a caviar craze, and each time

(01:06):
someone asks me why, I tell them the same thing.
An influx of mass produced Chinese caviar at super low prices,
said Edward Panchernikov, director of operations at caviar Rous, a
caviar restaurant in New York Wildcourt. Caviar is illegal under
regulation by the Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species.
Russian caviare, which accounts for a small percentage of the

(01:28):
global supply, is under U S sanctions. Today, most caviar
imported by the US is farmed in China, where low
labour costs, abundant waterways, and government support have helped push
down prices. Accurate data is scarce. Caviar makes up a
very small fraction of commodity imports, but the average price
for a kilogram of imported caviar in the US was

(01:49):
around two hundred and forty dollars in twenty twenty, down
from about four hundred forty dollars per kilogram in twenty fourteen.
According to the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture
Product China has endured multiple food safety scandals in recent years,
as well as accusations of unfairly competing on price, and
importers say this has tainted public perception of its caviar industry,

(02:11):
But the scale of Chinese aquaculture means there is enormous
range in the quality of caviar itsells, even within the
same sturgeon farm. The same way top vineyards can produce
grapes for the most coveted wines and sell the rest
for bottom shelf grocery store bottles. The same farm can
produce the finest etcetera fought over by Michelin restaurants, to
low grade caviar sold down market for cheap. The price

(02:34):
of Chinese caveat can range dramatically. Chefs quoted wholesale prices
including markups by importers, ranging from five hundred to fifteen
hundred dollars per kilogram, and retailers say it can go
as low as four hundred dollars. Price pressures across the
market mean it can be very difficult for smaller domestic
caviar farms to compete. Marshall Berg Farm, a U S

(02:54):
producer that supplies caveat to the Plaza hotel, said its
break even costs to produce a kilogram of cavia is
between a thousand to twelve hundred dollars. Chefs note that
some of the most expensive and desirable sturgeon row in
the world is coming from China. The consistency, the flavor
and the salinity is very very on point, said Kim
a kokoduc and crucially, chefs can be more generous with

(03:16):
their portions, creating an air of indulgence. The modern a
two Michelin star restaurant owned by Danny Meyer, serves a
cavire hot dog on its bar menu. Two cocktail wieners
each blanketed in about four grams of Chinese farmed golden
ear cetera caviar on many briosh buns for thirty nine dollars.
Bangkok Supper Club in the West Village tops its unie

(03:36):
and crabbed tartlet with the same variety a one bike
dish for twenty two dollars. If caviar is cheaper, now,
why are diners still paying a premium for it. Part
of the answer is that customer perception of caviare as
a rare luxury, and education about varying quality has lagged
behind the market. Customers aren't thinking about it too much,

(03:57):
says Lean One, co owner of Marshallburg Farm. They're thinking, OK,
it's caviat. Of course it's expensive. They're not thinking about
where it comes from. And despite the ascendancy of Chinese caviat,
when selling directly to customers, many importers still prefer not
to specify country of origin. Retailer websites will claim the
caviat was harvested in the immaculately clean waters of the

(04:19):
Thousand Islands Lake, but never mentioned China. China's Kiandal Lake,
which translates to Thousand Islands is where Kaluga Queen, the
world's largest supplier of caviar, is based. There is still
some prejudice, said Hosseinaimioni, the head of Paramount Caviaret, who
supplies Chinese caveat to restaurants such as La Bernardin in
New York. Snobbery about providence is a way to drive

(04:41):
demand and prices is also a sacred tradition as old
as the caviar trade itself. In the nineteenth century, when
the American sturgeon supply was abundant, the only caviare said
to be worth paying top dollar four was from the
Caspian Sea. American bars put domestic caviar out for free
like nuts, while industrious export is to Europe pretend their
supply was Caspian. Richard Carey wrote in his two thousand

(05:03):
and five cavire history The Philosopher Fish, Sturgeon, Caviare, and
the Geography of Desire. But while caviare is having a moment,
caviare in abundance and increasingly down market could threaten the
industry itself. The luxurious and rare history of sturgeon row
is under attack a bit, said Panchernikov, of caviar rouse.
People are trying to pedestrianize it and rid caviare of

(05:26):
that specialness. Menu prices stay high, not just because dealers
still make good margins, but because, as with all things luxury,
the price is the point. Affordable caviare is oxymoronic, said
David Stephen, an aquaculture scientist and caviare industry consultant. The
roe's true power for chefs is less about its costs
than in its ability to titillate. When Temple Bar started

(05:49):
offering twenty dollars caviar bumps in late twenty twenty one,
they got attention not because they were selling caviare, but
because they were doing them as bumps making fun of it,
said Rachel Harrison, a long time time hospitality industry publicist.
It made customers laugh, They took pictures for social media,
which brought in more customers. For twenty dollars, it felt
more like ordering another drink than splashing out two hundred

(06:11):
dollars or more for a caviare service. Thomas Allen, the
chef at The Modern says the role of its caviare
topped hot dog is to capitalize on the ingredient's ability
to generate customer excitement, not margins They make the cast
up elsewhere on alcohol or dessert. The hot dog is
like a feel good moment that makes you smile, he said.
Chances are you're not just going to order that, You're

(06:33):
going to order other things. You're going to order some wine.
Rather than being a cash cow, it's more like our
cost corotissary. Chicken Alan said, referencing the retailers famously inflation
proof four ninety nine product. Chef Max Whitterwatt at Bangkok's
Supper Club calls the Uni tartlet a hero dish. The
restaurant isn't making much margin on it, but it drives

(06:53):
foot traffic, looks good on social media, and because it
won't fill you up, increases spend per customer. China has
made caviar more affordable for everyone, but at the restaurant,
customers still appreciate it. They still see caviare as a luxury,
he said. Similarly, Coco Dog chef knows people won't order
one chicken nugget and call it dinner, so he keeps

(07:13):
the price in relative bounds while using fine caviare and
almost everyone wants to order one. We're not really making
money out of this. This is just to bring excitement,
Kim said. It's about sustainability. The appeal of cavia has
always been that it's a little outrageous, like Great Champagne.
The cost, the history, and the sheer fiscal irresponsibility has

(07:34):
always been an erotic undercurrent beneath its culinary appeal, the
reason we reach for it when the occasion feels special.
But now that caviar is no longer so rare. Chefs
are playing with it, treating it like it's just another ingredient,
albeit one with low labour costs. They only need to
open a tin, and in the case of an economic downturn,
they need dishes that can drawing customers and drive spending

(07:57):
with prices that aren't totally out of reach. The relative
affordability of high quality caviar could soon change as tariffs
on China hit importers, while scaled up Chinese aquaculture threatens
more supply of mid tier caviar than the market can bear.
I hope there's not going to be a glut, but
there is a lot of caviare in the market right now,
Imani said it is likely. He said that more restaurants

(08:19):
will start buying up lower quality, cheaper caviard to bridge
the gap. In the meantime, caviar remains ubiquitous. Cavia has
been pigeonholed by society as a luxury ingredient, said Mike Burgail,
executive chef of New York restaurants Sip and Guzzle. I
try to serve it almost at cost. I don't want
to buy into the idea of overcharging for a commodity
that costs a lot serving it in small amounts. He

(08:42):
serves it in a cogy cool ranch party dip with
puffed chicken skin one hundred and twenty five dollars. The
relative affordability of caviat today means he can be generous.
They're fish eggs. It doesn't have to be super embellished
or dainty or tweeze it onto fish filets at a
fine dining restaurant anymore, said Burguetl. He serves Greek cavire
on ice cream seventy dollars for ten grams. At the

(09:05):
end of the day, it's sald