Leave it to Eric Ripert, New York's most acclaimed seafood chef, to come up with the crème de caviar.
By Stephanie Wu
As the chef at Le Bernardin, Eric Ripert faces a serious occupational hazard: He eats a ton of caviar. "I've done it every day at work for the last 20 years," he says. His distributor (and close friend), Hossein Aimani of Paramount Caviar, has the same problem. "It's part of my job — I'm guilty of the crime of eating caviar every day. Someone has to do it." The two connoisseurs have come together to create Eric Ripert Imperial Select Caviar, which they believe is the best in the world: a creamy, nutty, briny, light-colored roe from sturgeon raised on a farm in Hangzhou, China, of which there are only 44 pounds (roughly 160 tins) available this season. To meet their high standards, they will pull the product if they can't find caviar of the same caliber in the future. So how do they justify a $525 price tag for a four-ounce tin? (It is one of the most, if not the most, expensive caviars on the market.) "The size, color, and firmness of the egg make it perfect," Aimani says. "You're able to break the eggs apart with just the tip of your tongue. It's textbook caviar." Ripert adds, "When you're on a boat and the wind brings the smell of the ocean to you — that's this caviar." He suggests pairing it with blinis and crème fraîche (included with each tin). We prefer dipping straight in with a spoon (nonmetal, naturally) and washing it down with champagne. "It's best experienced with someone you love, in a celebratory mood," Ripert says. "You actually shouldn't have it every day, because then you'd take it for granted."
From $525, paramountcaviar.com
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