RESTORANOVED: Blind sturgeon-caviar tasting at CAVIAR RUSSIA St. Petersburg

The tasting aimed to demonstrate the diversity and variation in Russia's caviar market and encourage experts and consumers to choose caviar and its producer responsibly. Ten sturgeon caviars from ten producers officially represented in Russia were entered. Blind voting and scoring produced a ranking and identified the leading brands and caviar varieties.

CAVIAR RUSSIA founder Olga Ratasep says: “Conscious consumption has naturally reached restaurants and created a new trend. Guests now routinely ask where ingredients come from, how they are harvested and whether production is environmentally responsible; chefs happily discuss trusted suppliers. Yet caviar remains surrounded by myths and inadequately protected by legislation, allowing dishonest producers to conceal or falsify information. CAVIAR RUSSIA helps people choose caviar they can trust and distinguish reliable sturgeon-aquaculture products from repackaged Chinese raw material.” The expert panel traditionally includes prominent Russian chefs and restaurateurs, business and cultural figures and publishers of culinary magazines.

The blind tasting on 21 November included leading St. Petersburg chefs Sergey Fokin (Eclipse), Roman Kiselev (GooseGoose) and Svetlana Sursikova (Syrovarnya); Dmitry Grozny, editor-in-chief of MarketMedia and Restaurant Reviewer of the Year at WhereToEat; Natalia Markova, Sobaka magazine's best sommelier of 2019; Viktor Shabalin, chair of the St. Petersburg Culinary Association; Alexander Markov, founder and publisher of Restoranoved; and other distinguished guests from gastronomy, business and culture.

Voting awarded third place to harvested sturgeon caviar from Aquatrade, second to Gorkunov and first to Sasuntsi David.

After the results were announced, guests received a chef's compliment: baked potatoes and seasonal pumpkin crème brûlée with the winning caviar.

The evening ended with a themed quiz organised by the project, with the winning caviar as the prize.

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