Caviar Pizzas, New Money, and the Death of an Ancient Fish
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Fancy fish eggs have become the latest luxury good to go viral on social media, raising questions about the future of sturgeon.
I am sitting at a slick Manhattan waterfront restaurant on the banks of the East River, New York City, trying to decide why I find the caviar pizza on the menu so disturbing.
Jonathan Haffmans, the executive chef of Industry Kitchen, is telling me how their extremely expensive signature “24K” pie is made. “First of all,” Haffmans says, “if you want it, you have to book it at least 48 hours in advance. It takes us that long to assemble all the ingredients.” When an order comes in (and there are around 15 to 20 requests a year), Haffmans begins by preparing a dough tinted black with squid ink. Once kneaded and shaped, a base of garlic crème fraiche and Stilton cheese is laid down. Then the artists adorn their canvas, applying topping after indulgent topping. Buds of Périgord truffles and wedges of foie gras fan out from the center. Gold leaf and edible flower petals flutter down to bring a little color. Finally, the pièce de résistance is administered: heaping spoonfuls of French platinum osetra caviar, distributed so that each of the pizza’s eight slices is anointed with some sturgeon eggs. When the check is finally dropped, diners can expect to pay US $2,000. For just $700, an additional heaping tablespoon of premium, yellow-tinted almas osetra will find its way onto your pizza.
That the 24K is meant to appeal to a certain kind of over-the-top client during this new Gilded Age is self-evident. With more than $16 trillion in stock market wealth created in the past 10 years alone, a couple thousand bucks is chump change to the Wall Street bros and sisses who work just three blocks south of Industry Kitchen.
read more at hakaimagazine.com.
