Petrossian

More New York Temptations Promised For LeBron James

Last week I wrote about a couple of chefs (Michael Symon from Cleveland and Jean-Georges Vongerichten from New York City) trying to influence LeBron James with free meals. Since then the deals have only gotten sweeter, at least on the New York side. Fans who want the basketball phenom, shown at right accepting the Spike TV Guy's Choice Award for "Unstoppable Jock," to come to New York and play for the Knicks just keep ladling out the promises. The NY Daily News rounds up a few more which include enough food offers to make sure that James never pays for a meal again. Bo Dietl offered a regular seat at Rao's, the chief cook of Smoke in Da Eye offered LeBron unlimited barbecue and Bob Bertrand of The Original SoupMan pledged free soup for life. That's not all, Bliss Spa has offered him treatments and the Palm Tribeca seeks to tempt him with hickory-smoked ribeye steak with jumbo Nova Scotia lobster for two.

Samantha Choi of the Classic Car Club Manhattan offered him an annual membership worth $10,000 and all sorts of New Yorkers filled up a trailer full of gifts outside Madison Square Garden so that they can be delivered to LeBron James in Cleveland. Hotelier Andre Balasz has offered LeBron a loft suite at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo and Alexandre Petrossian will send over a snack of Royal Ossetra caviar sandwiches. Sean Combs posted his appeal on Twitter promising LeBron James free Sean John clothing and Ciroc vodka for life. On the Cmon LeBron website, Iron Chef Mario Batali appears in video (after the jump) in a Cmon LeBron T-shirt upping Michael Symon's promise of an Iron Chef meal a month to an Iron Chef meal every two weeks in New York City.

What's next, will Los Angeles weigh in? Some rumors have David Geffen buying a share in the Clippers and bringing LeBron James to Los Angeles to enliven the much-maligned franchise. Could Chicago be far behind with promises of a lifetime of free deep dish. For LeBron, whose is facing a July 1 deadline, the culinary possibilities seem nearly endless.

Tags: bliss spa, ciroc, expire-images:2010-7-11, lebron james, mario batali, mercer hotel, michael symon, nbc, New York Knicks, Petrossian, sean john

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Petrossian: Caviarchitect of Luxury

by Jason Tesauro (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Modern Gentleman

Who knew so much Petrossian decadence could fit into a diminutive box no larger than a panettone. Nestled between cold packs, five jars of edible jewels from Petrossian Caviar begged to be unloosed and introduced to a stack of blinis. Yet, in an age of depleted wild sturgeon and general oceanic irresponsibility, I wondered if satisfying a caviar craving was akin to picnicking on White Spotted Owl sandwiches or proposing to a lover with conflict diamonds. Thus, to properly understand and appreciate the goodies, I boned up on Inga Saffron's vast, gritty and noir-esque read, Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy Unlike some glossy, coffee table tome, this is a behind-the-scenes, sea level perspective of the rise and fall of sturgeon, Caspian politics, and caviar culture. After absorbing the book and the jars of caviar, I also caught up with Petrossian Inc.'s Michel Emery, Director of Sales & Purchasing for the eighty-year-old New York firm, Luxist's 2009 Reader's Choice Award Winner for Best Caviar.

The Row Over Roe
While caviar's allure has been venerated for centuries, its modern rarity stems mainly from an incompatibility of sturgeon biology and human development. Sturgeon are older than the dinosaurs, and the Caspian Sea contains the world's highest concentration of sturgeon because it's more of a salty lake than a sea and these ancient bottom-feeders love the brackish deltas and estuaries. Further, since sturgeon always return to the same place to spawn, many of the twenty-seven species are only found in a single river basin. "If a dam blocks the way to a sturgeon's birthplace," Saffron writes, "it will refuse to spawn." Yes, nature has given female sturgeon as many as 10 million eggs per cycle, but these slow-moving, easily-caught giants (the largest beluga ever caught weighed over 4,500-lbs and measured 28-ft long) might only produce eggs ten times during its life. We've squeezed habitats, polluted waters, and hunted them to near extinction à la American buffalo and African elephants, and whereas generations of fishermen on the Caspian used to snag 250 beluga per hour, the catch nowadays yields mostly empty hooks.

Tags: awards-main, caviar, caviar tasting, food-pedia, luxist-awards, main-pedia, petrossian, sturgeon, vodka

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Caviar, Now In Cube Form

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Caviar, lovely as it is, lacks a certain ease of use. If you've ever longed for a cleaner caviar here it is, the caviar cube. The NY Times reports that for the last 20 years the United States Fish and WIldlife Service has not permitted the import of pressed caviar because it is too hard to tell what sort of sturgeon it came from. But now Petrossian is making cubes of pressed caviar from farmed California transmontanus. The black cubes are packed in oil and can has a variety of purposes including adding a luxe twist to pasta. The oil, which takes on a fishy flavor, can also be used for cooking or seasoning. The Caviarcubes sell for $45 for around 18 cubes.

Tags: caviar, caviar cubes, CaviarCubes, petrossian

Can You Get Wild Caspian Sea Caviar for New Year's Eve?

by Deb West (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Luxist has been following the availability of wild Caspian Sea caviar for years. Caviar aficionados remember the first ban on Beluga caviar that went into effect in September 2005 that made it illegal to import the delicacy to the United States until it was lifted by the United Nations in 2007. Since the removal of the ban, coveted wild Caspian Sea caviar has been available but the prices have been astronomical and both the availability and quality spotty.

According to David Rosengarten, a food and wine writer, cook book author and former host of an award wining Food Network television show, it may not be possible to buy anything other than farm raised caviar for New Year's Eve. He reports in Tasting's, his ezine, that Petrossian, winner of the Luxist Reader's Choice Award, will not be selling anything but farm-raised caviar and none of it from the Caspian Sea. He also states that we shouldn't despair as their are so many delicious alternatives to the original Beluga caviar. Among his favorites is Petrossian's Avelrta President caviar which is farmed in northern California from white sturgeon.

A discreet phone call to Petrossian revealed that it is in fact accurate that they have recently sold out of their supply of high grade wild caviar which was retailing for a whopping $20,000 a kilo. Assurances were made that the supply is fluid and that there will be more available. You may have to win the lottery as the price of the wild caviar is in the category of "if you have to ask, you can't afford it". That being said, Petrossian is committed to retaining wild caviar for their VIP customers. For the rest of us, they provide an incredible selection of varieties of farmed caviar.

The silver lining to the shortage of the wild Caspian Sea caviar is that it gives us all a good excuse to break free from the traditional definitions of what is the "best" caviar. Let your taste buds decide which variety and style of farm raised eggs you like the most.

Tags: caspian, caspian sea, CaspianSea, caviar, New Years Eve, NewYearsEve, Petrossian

Petrossian's Caviar Holiday Experience

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Caviar purveyor and Luxist Reader's Choice winner, Petrossian has created a new luxurious feast, the American Caviar Holiday Experience. This package includes four varieties of American Caviar, caviar complements, chocolate truffles and a bottle of white wine.

Two of the caviars in the American Caviar Holiday Experience, the Royal Transmontanus Caviar and Alverta Caviar, are sustainable caviars, taken from White Sturgeon grown in the Stolt Sea Farm in California. The package also includes Hackleback Caviar and Chataluga Prestige, harvested wild from rivers in Tennessee and Illinois. The wine, Chateau Olivier White 2005 Pessac Leognan, was selected by Petrossian's sommeliers to accompany caviar. Petrossian also adds in creme fraiche and blini. For dessert, the Petrossian's Chocolate Truffle Sampler features flavors like Salted Butter Caramel, Chile-Limon Mayan Truffle, and Lime with Coconut and Ginger. This package retails for $537 and includes free shipping.

Source

Tags: american caviar, AmericanCaviar, caviar, holiday feast, holiday gifts, HolidayFeast, HolidayGifts, petrossian

Petrossian Wins Readers' Choice Award for Best Caviar Retailer

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Petrossian is the winner of the Readers' Choice award in the Best Caviar Retailer category.

Perhaps the most storied of caviar's purveyors, Petrossian traces its roots to a pair of Armenian brothers who brought their love of roe from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the edge of the Atlantic in the 1920s. Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian migrated from Eastern Europe to Paris to continue their studies in law and medicine, but found the City of Light woefully devoid of their favorite Russian delicacy.

Since then, Petrossian has grown to become the premier buyer and importer of Russian caviar worldwide. Its Tsar Imperial label graces some of the finest Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga on the market. To this day, the company insists that members of the Petrossian family personally select the best of every Russian caviar catch.

Fortunately for those whose appetite for adventure doesn't outweigh the appetite for quality caviar, accompanying modern-day Petrossians on a Russian fishing scow isn't the only way to enjoy their caviar. The company offers delivery, as well as restaurant locations in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York.

Founded in 1984, New York's Petrossian restaurant is a special treat. Ideally located for opera goers of discerning taste, it's housed in the historic Alwyn Court Building on Manhattan's West Side, one block from Carnegie Hall and four blocks from Lincoln Center. Melkoum and Mouchegh would most certainly be proud.

Gallery: More from Petrossian

Tags: awards-main, Beluga caviar, BelugaCaviar, caviar, food-awards, luxist-awards, petrossian, winners-food

Readers' Choice Award Nominees for Best in Food

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Services

Best Gourmet Grocer/Food Hall
The Readers Choice nominees for Best Gourmet Grocer/Food Hall include one that started out with a small store in Texas and today, has more than 270 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. An Ohio-based nominee is family-owned and operated that is recognized for its great food and service. Two nominees are New York institutions offering gourmet foods from around the world. Last, but not least, there's an opulent Food Hall in London that is known worldwide for the sheer volume and selection of its international goods all presented in breathtaking displays.

Dean & DeLuca
Dorothy Lane Market
Harrods Food Hall
Whole Foods
Zabar's

Best Online Gourmet Food
The Readers' Choice nominees for the Best Online Gourmet Food include a New York institution with a staff that travel the world in search of great artisan-produced foods. A Seattle-based nominee was launched by a group of passionate food-lovers committed to the best artisan-produced, sustainable foods while another nominee is a family-owned operation that originated from three generations of cheese importers. A Michigan-based nominee is a collection of local businesses, each with its own food specialty. Finally, the Philadelphia-based nominee celebrates the European roots of its two founders with a wide array of gourmet meats, cheeses, oils, and other goods from around the world.

ChefShop.com
Dean & DeLuca
Di Bruno Brothers
iGourmet.com
Zingerman's Mail Order

Best Caviar Retailer
The Readers' Choice nominees for Best Caviar Retailer include award-winning brands from Europe and the United States with each offering the highest of quality. Several offer some of the finest Russian caviar to be found, while one is a proponent of sustainably harvested roe with its own tank-farming system.

Caviarteria
Caviar House & Prunier
Caviar Russe
Petrossian
Tsar Nicoulai Caviar

Best Bread Bakery
The Readers' Choice nominees for Best Bread Bakery include companies that have been producing bread for decades. One opened more than 70 years ago and is now an institution in Paris, while another was launched in Belgium before expanding around the world. A Los Angeles-based nominee has developed more than 100 varieties of award-winning breads. The Philadelphia-based nominee features artisanal breads and the baked goods of the Ann Arbor-based nominee are known throughout the Midwest.

La Brea Bakery
Le Pain Quotidien
Max Poilaine
Metropolitan Bakery
Zingerman's Bakehouse

Best Cheese Shop
The Readers' Choice nominees are among the most respected shops in the world. These cheese shops, offer a full range of both international and domestic artisanal cheeses. They are the destinations for serious cheese lovers and chefs who are in search of the best.

Farmstead
Formaggio Kitchen
Murray's Cheese
Neal's Yard Dairy
Pastoral