NEW YORK – It is evening at Daniel, the New York restaurant of French chef Daniel Boulud on the Upper East Side, which has three Michelin stars. A couple sitting at the bar tastes the caviar. "Fantastic. Simply fantastic," they say. Even the price – $470 for 50 grams of highest-quality caviar – doesn't spoil the taste for them. New York diners are prepared to pay generously for good raw ingredients.
What the couple and the other guests at the prestigious restaurant don't know is that this fine and costly caviar comes from Israel. "We started serving Israeli caviar at the restaurant four or five years ago and since then it has only improved. And today it is the best there is on the market," says Jean Francois Bruel, the chef at Daniel. "The quality of Israeli caviar really is excellent. The grain is very firm and the flavor is excellent. Unlike many kinds of caviar, Israeli caviar doesn't have an aftertaste – in my opinion because it is raised in especially clean water."
Daniel is not the only respected restaurant that has discovered the wonders of Israeli caviar. "All the chefs and buyers who specialize in fine food appreciate its quality," says Rod Browne-Mitchell, owner of the Browne Trading Company, a purveyor of high-quality fish and seafood that has been distributing Israeli caviar in the United States for 10 years now.
Eric Ripert, the chef and proprietor of the most important fish restaurant in New York today, Le Bernardin, echoes the compliment. "The Israeli caviar is the best there is today on the market," declares Ripert, whose restaurant has not only been awarded three Michelin stars but also has held the top spot on the list of popular New York restaurants in the Zagat guide, the city's most important food guidebook. "There is some not bad caviar on the market," adds Ripert. "The Chinese have good caviar but the quality of it is not consistent. Germany and Italy have pretty good caviar and there are also products from France and the United States, but what comes from Israel is the nearest thing to the top."
Read the complete article from Haaretz.com