Caviar

Salted sturgeon roe (the roe of mullet, cod, salmon and lumpfish are not caviar), the ne plus ultra of foods and the priciest. Historically, fishermen were the only consumers of caviar, removing the roe before selling the fish. Caviar first appeared in texts by Diphilius of Siphnos in the 4th century BC, who made the distinction between fresh and salted caviar. References by other authors reveal that caviar, like the meat of the sturgeon itself, was already extremely popular in Ancient Greece, so much so that it was imported from the Black Sea. The emperor Severus was famous for having caviar served up on a bed of roses, to the sound of flutes and drums. During the Roman era, sturgeon was considered the finest fish in the world, but caviar fell into oblivion for several centuries. From 11th century trading registers and 12th century Greek poems, we learn about a refined dish called kabiari, found in Constantinople, on the shores of the Black Sea, honored and considered a luxury item. It gradually returned to Western tables in the 14th century, probably due to Genovese and Venetian merchants, who controlled most of the seagoing trade when caviar first appeared in Italy.

The first trace of the word caviari appears in a Latin text dated 1319. The origin of the word is uncertain, but probably comes from the Turkish havyar or khavyar meaning not just any fish's egg, but those of the sturgeon. The Greeks, however, offer another explanation: they claim it comes from the ancient Greek word avyarion, from the root word avyon, meaning "egg." In France, the word appeared for the first time in 1432 as cavyaire. When Czar Peter the Great's ambassador ceremoniously presented the young Louis XV with a spoonful of the priceless caviar, he promptly spat it out, disgusted, on the carpet of Versailles. During the Czarist era, the first sturgeon caught were considered to be the Czar's by right. Later, the same right was transferred to the Shah of Iran. Since the Russian Revolution, the premier supplier of Russian caviar has been the Petrossian family, who introduced it to post-First World War Paris. In 2006, the United Nations, alarmed by the plunging number of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, banned the global trade of caviar in the hope that the ban will help save the endangered fish and stop illegal poaching. The ban does not apply to farmed sturgeon. See also malossol caviar.

---