Pearls of wisdom
British entrepreneur Alan Jones hatched more than just a clever plan-his ethically farmed, and affordable caviar from his French fish farm is taking on the world
Featured June 08British entrepreneur Alan Jones hatched more than just a clever plan-his ethically farmed, and affordable caviar from his French fish farm is taking on the world
WORDS BY HEIDI FULLER-LOVE
IT'S EGG SEASON AND ALAN JONES IS UP TO HIS KNEES IN ALGID WATER. Black fins slash around his welly-booted legs like knife blades as he lunges from side to side, trying to grab one of the sturgeon racing to and fro across the shallow breeding pond of his sprawling fish farm near Bordeaux.
During the caviar season, which stretches from November to March, Alan will spend most of his time in ponds like this one, catching female sturgeon fish then handing them over to his team who will carry out time-consuming biopsies to see if that right Royal roe is ripe for harvest. "I should have stuck with rugby. Tackling big butch blokes on the pitch was a lot easier than nancying around after sturgeon," he jokes.
Humming a lewd rugger song: "The virgin sturgeon needs no urging, that's why caviar is my dish," he plunges into the water once more and reappears cuddling a smooth-skinned fish with the pout of a duck billed platypus.
Like the shark, this bizarre-looking amphibian has been a motif on the world's wallpaper for the past 300 million years and like the shark, it's an invertebrate. Unlike its predatory pond mate, however, the sturgeon is anadromous: living in marine water as an adult but returning to freshwater rivers to breed.
Stroking the big fish fondly, Alan explains how he upped sticks in Leicestershire, England and moved to France in the 80s to run a turbot farm for Kraft General Foods. But when the company decided to relocate to Spain he jumped ship and headed for Bordeaux. "That's when I had this idea, with my business partner Jean Boucher, to set up a caviar farm in the area. When I approached the banks for finance though they told me I was off my rocker."
MENTION FRENCH CAVIAR TODAY AND YOU'RE STILL LIKELY TO GET ODD LOOKS. More generally associated with Russia and Iran, only the roe's real connoisseurs know that Acipenser Sturio sturgeon once pullulated in the Gironde estuary and that the Bordeaux region, which is better known for its fine wines, also has a long caviar tradition. According to local legend it all began when a Romanof princess on the run from the Bolsheviks was washed up on the shores of St Seurin d'Uzet, and was horrified to see fisherman netting sturgeon, eating the fish and throwing away the roe. Whipping out a tortoiseshell spoon she fed them some of that luscious black stuff and they were hooked. By the early 50s this tiny port, tucked into a noodle-shaped loop of the Gironde estuary, was producing five tons of caviar per annum. Sadly, however, the Atlantic Sturio that survived the dinosaurs proved no match for the 20th century's frenetic evolution. Decimated by pollution, fish dams and nuclear power plants, by the late 90s the Sturio had become an endangered species and the Bordeaux region's caviar tradition seemed doomed to extinction until Alan Jones stepped in to save the day.
Although some 20 species of sturgeon exist in the wild, only three types are generally fished for caviar. Weighing in at 2,000 pounds, the Beluga, with its butter-nut flavoured pearls, is the prize catch. Unfortunately, this giant water baby takes 20 years to reach egg-producing maturity. Next in line, the finer-finned Osetra grows to maturity in 12-to-14 years, while the slender Sevruga takes eight-10 years to produce eggs. When the banks refused them finance, bluff cheeked Jones and his bon viveur partner Boucher bought a fish hatchery near St Fort sur Gironde and stocked it with 30,000, three-year-old Baeri sturgeon. This river species traditionally prized for its flesh, gives excellent roe, reaches egg-bearing maturity in eight years and is better adapted to captivity than the wild Acipenser sturgeon.
After four knuckle-biting years of waiting to reap the rewards of their investment, however, disaster struck on the night of 27th December 1999. During the hurricane that devastated much of France, a frenzied sea burst over the dunes and submerged the hatchery's breeding pens, just weeks away from harvesting the first roe. When the waters finally receded they took with them more than 8,000 Baeri sturgeon, including 2,500 females ready to produce an estimate 500 kilos of caviar. "At an average 5000 francs per kilo I'll leave you to calculate the loss."
Interrupting his reply, Alan shows me how the roe is harvested. Making a neat incision he removes the roe from the fish's belly, then sieves the sack of sticky brown pearls to separate them from the membrane. Later they will be graded according to colour and size, salted and stored in ice, then canned as the company's own brand (the blue-labelled Caviar d'Aquitaine) or sold on to prestigious distributors like Petrossian.
Once upon a time, and not so long ago, farmed caviar was a scorned treat. With the UN introducing draconian restrictions on the export of caviar from the Caspian Sea, however, the price of wild caviar has shot up by 60% in the past six months alone and roe lovers are being forced to seek other sources.
"At first the French chefs just ignored my caviar because they shared the same prejudice. Then a couple of years ago we had a blind tasting and out of 20 caviars, including wild ones, our Sturia came second," Alan chuckles. "With Beluga caviar costing upwards of €337 , the price of our Sturia caviar, which sells for around €62, made it pretty appetising too."
Farmed caviar also ticks another box-and one that's becoming increasingly important-it's ethically produced, which is why nowadays even Michelin-starred chefs like Michel Roux at London's Le Gavroche, are dishing farmed caviar to their clients.
As for Alan Jones, with total production in the Caviar region now 10 tons per annum- double what it was in its heyday-and 70% of that production generated by his own firm Kaviar, he is now the leading producer of caviar in the whole of Western Europe.
At 64 years old Alan Jones, the lad from Leicestershire, still seems boyishly enthusiastic about being the top producer of France's most precious fish stuff. For him at any rate, the future's black.
Taste it
The big fish of the caviar world is hooked on the stuff himself: "I love it served on crackers with a thin layer of crème fraîche or sprinkled over new potatoes and an iced glass of vodka. But you can also have it on a bed of thinly sliced smoked sturgeon, or with lukewarm oysters. Some even eat it with minced beef or stranger still, banana slices!"
WHERE TO BUY
Contact Alan direct at Caviar d'Aquitaine, www.kaviar.com. You'll also find Alan's brands on sale at King's Fine Foods www.kingscaviar.co.uk, Harrods and Fortnum & Mason, all in London. In France you'll find Caviar d'Aquitaine sold at all the finest caviar emporiums in Paris, including Petrossian, near to the Place des Invalides, and Caviar Kaspia, on the Place de la Madeline.
WHERE TO DINE
• La Filadière, 1 Furt 33170, Gauriac Tel. +33 05 57 64 94 05
• Hostellerie de Plaisance, Place du Clocher 33330, Saint Emilion Tel. +33 (0)5 57 55 07 55 www.hostellerie-plaisance.com
• Restaurant Caviar House Prunier, 15 place de la Madeleine, Paris Tel. +33 (0)1 42 63 48 18 www.exclusive-restaurants. com/caviar_house_prunierfr.htm
• Restaurant Christophe Bonnet, 6 rue Mazagran 44100, Nantes Tel. +33 (0)2 40 69 03 39
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