Has caviar gone from luxurious to mainstream? How 4 Hong Kong chefs – and 1 Instagram foodie – use ‘black gold’ in unexpected ways, from Whey’s Barry Quek to Mono’s Ricardo Chaneton

Jun 18 , 2023

Today there is less mystique around the luxurious ingredient caviar, with its increased supply seeing it crop up in all kinds of dishes. Photo: Artifact

There are certain foods that come with their own reputation, entourage and even riders – the Beyoncés of the culinary world – that inevitably steal the show from the rest of Destiny’s Child: think white truffle, foie gras, sea urchin. In a world of foodies who eat for Instagram, these have become a luxury garnish for the lazy chef, toppers that elevate without necessarily adding finesse.

And then there is caviar – the ingredient they call black gold, whose presence was once revered. In reality, sturgeon roe is now an expensive add-on at all-you-can-eat champagne brunches or retailed in one- or two-kilo stackable tins to be dolloped atop whatever’s on the dinner table that evening.

The rise of culinary documentary series such as Chef’s Table and the democratisation of fine dining globally have increased knowledge of and appreciation for previously less available foods. As demand has risen, wild-caught fish were threatened with extinction and so today have been largely replaced by animals farmed in a number of countries worldwide. There’s even lab-grown caviar!

We spoke to four Hong Kong chefs – and one foodie whose fondness for caviar sees her fridge constantly stocked with Oscietra – about how they help caviar to shine on their menus.

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1. Chef Sato Kiyoshi, Artifact

Artifact bar’s Wagyu sando with a heaping of caviar. Photo: Artifact

Chef Sato Kiyoshi, who designed the caviar-led menu at Artifact, the chef’s table-slash-speakeasy at upscale food court Basehall02, uses three different caviars in his degustation menu: “Superior, which has a large egg, great texture and a light flavour, which allows us to use greater quantities on the said dish without overpowering. Oscietra: beautiful eggs, a great complexity of flavour and richness, which can provide a bigger burst of umami. And premium baerii – baerii has acquired the stigma of a lower grade caviar, which is certainly not true. From the minimum age requirement of processing being longer than others, to the complexity and longer-lasting taste, it provides something many other caviars do not.”

Though nearly every dish on the menu features caviar, the chef feels his simple rice dish showcases the stuff best. “We use four types of eggs on our rice dish: superior caviar, soy-cured Japanese egg yolk, sake-marinated salmon eggs, and karasumi (cured mullet roe).”

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2. Chef Ricardo Chaneton, Mono

Kaluga caviar, Peruvian aji amarillo and Kalamata olives at Mono in Hong Kong. Photo: Mono

Chef Ricardo Chaneton of Mono is an ingredients-focused chef who doesn’t like using caviar “for the sake of it”.

“It has to make sense in the dish and also add something special to it. I like to play around with different flavours and texture combinations and use caviar as a way to elevate but also balance the flavours of other ingredients. Our kaluga caviar, Peruvian aji amarillo, Kalamata olives dish is a special recipe created to allow guests to enjoy the pure fresh taste of the caviar. We use kaluga caviar, which is well known for its large glossy eggs and a buttery, silky taste. The sturgeon that produce this caviar swim freely in the freshwater of the Amur River, which gives a fresh mineral flavour to the caviar. You get notes of iodine from the caviar, which is slightly smoked and marinated; an aromatic flavour from the potato; the meatiness from the chicken and a nice fruitiness from the Kalamata olives. The olives pair well with the milder tastes of the potato and chicken in this dish, while the umami iodine flavour of the caviar rounds the dish off and adds creaminess.”

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3. Chef Barry Quek, Whey

Maoshan Wang durian ice cream with cristal caviar and milk crisp at Whey in Hong Kong. Photo: Whey

Chef Barry Quek of Whey wasn’t thinking necessarily of creating a dish using caviar when he conceived of one of the signature items on his restaurant’s changing menu, the Maoshan Wang durian ice cream with cristal caviar and milk crisp.

“The idea to use caviar in a dessert came about as I was searching for an ingredient that would provide some salinity and balance the strong flavour and creamy texture of the durian ice cream. Initially, I thought of pairing the ice cream with spiced nuts, but during a caviar tasting, I chanced upon a type of caviar that had the nutty notes and the salinity I was looking for.

I tried around nine different caviars before settling on using cristal caviar from Royal Caviar Club for this dish. The caviar is a hybrid of two different types of sturgeon: acipenser schrenckii and huso dauricus raised in Zhejiang, China. The reason we chose this kind of caviar is purely because of its flavour profile: the eggs are creamy, buttery and – most importantly – it has these beautiful hazelnut notes, which complement the Maoshan Wang ice cream very well.”

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4. Chef Edward Voon, Auor

Caviar carnival at Auor in Hong Kong. Photo: Auor

Chef Edward Voon of Auor waxes poetic: “I have always loved caviar. Salt and age give the sturgeon roe an extraordinary presence, and now that sturgeon are sustainably farmed in many parts of the world, including China, with great success, chefs have greater scope to play with caviar and fold it into their dishes. I find that the natural saltiness, umami and creaminess of the different roe elevate the complex, layered tastes of my Asian-led contemporary creations.”

Voon puts his money where his mouth is with a caviar carnival that pairs caviars with six different vegetable-led canapés – including a mini carrot tart that “comprises three different preparations – carrot chutney and carrot purée with lemongrass, decorated by delicate sheets of pickled carrot. On top is baerii caviar, from kaluga sturgeon farmed in Sichuan. The roe has a rich umami flavour and a long aftertaste of subtle sea notes, which goes well with the carrot’s slight sweetness and spice. I’m most excited about the tiny gel droplets that I dot around the caviar. These contain rojak essence, inspired by the Javanese salad dish I used to enjoy with my family when growing up in Malaysia and Singapore.”

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5. Michelle Yu aka @munching_dentist on Instagram

Nomad caviar beloved by Michelle Yu, a Hong Kong foodie known as @munching_dentist. Photo: Handout

Michelle Yu, known as @munching_dentist on Instagram, has caviar so often that she has a dedicated tab for the ingredient in her Stories Highlights. She’s known for slathering the stuff on top of her own recipes – whether it’s on pizzas baked in her at-home woodfire oven, or fresh eggette waffles made aboard her yacht on summer Sundays – and bringing tins of Nomad caviar along to dinners.

After taste-testing her way across the world, her favourite restaurant dish that uses caviar comes from Hong Kong’s Caprice, the brainchild of Guillaume Galliot: “I’ve always loved white asparagus and caviar dishes but it doesn’t really get better than this. The smoothness of the white asparagus panna cotta allows you to taste the texture of the caviar beads, and the thin calamansi gel topped with verbena leaves adds the artistic flair to the dish, giving a slight acidic finish to bring out the sweetness of the asparagus and the freshness of the caviar. Perfection!”

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Food and Drinks

Oscietre, baerii, cristal – different types of the sturgeon roe are sourced from Russia’s Amur River or more sustainably farmed in Zhejiang, China and elsewhere
Michelle Yu, known as @munching_dentist on Instagram, loves a dish from Hong Kong’s Caprice, the brainchild of Guillaume Galliot, that pairs it with asparagus