“Domestic caviar is now served by chefs like Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Napa Valley, Charlie Trotter at the Chicago restaurant that bears his name and Rick Moonen of RM in Manhattan. Groups like Caviar Emptor commend sturgeon farmers like Tsar Nicoulai for using ecologically sound approaches, with water recycled though wetlands and fed back into the tanks to cut waste.” Amy Cortese, New York Times Chef Thomas Keller has also gone on to say, “Although Tsar Nicoulai’s California Estate Osetra Caviar has been available for many years, we are only now beginning to appreciate its distinctiveness. Intensely flavorful with a refined and smooth finish, it is the best farm raised caviar available.”

Comparing Tsar Nicoulai’s California Estate Osetra to the imported varieties, W Magazine says, “The California Caviar is the same size as the Osetra with similar perfect gray beads. Only three weeks old, the California roe has a fresher, less complex taste compared with its imported sea-grown siblings, which can be aged from six months to more than a year.” Charlie Palmer of Aureole Restaurant in New York City states that “every individual egg is distinct and perfect and makes this terrific little pop against the roof of your mouth.” W Magazine He has also gone on to say, “I am proud to feature California Estate Osetra on my menus. Today’s educated consumers celebrate American quality and sustainability, and this caviar reaches their expectations.” Dante Boccuzzi, executive chef at Aureole in New York City says that the farm-raised caviar he purchases from Tsar Nicoulai has proved a safer bet than Beluga. “The thing I’ve always noticed with the Caspian Sea caviar is that it was never consistent,” explains Boccuzzi. “At the farm, they control the water, they control what the fish eat and they harvest the eggs at the proper time.” Robb Report

Chef Wolfgang Puck, owner of Spago Beverly Hills, as well as many other nationally recognized restaurants, featured Tsar Nicoulai Caviar on The Wolfgang Puck Show stating that, “California produces some of the best caviar in the world…[the farmed osetra] has a nutty, buttery flavor which is equal to the caviar from the Caspian Sea.”

Chef and television personality Jacques Pépin wrote in a New York Times editorial, “Chefs make choices every day -- choices that are not related solely to the presentation of the finest culinary creations one can imagine. Now more than ever, it is clear how our choices -- and those of retailers and consumers -- can affect the environment... During this time, caviar lovers might try the roe of United States farm-grown sturgeon, which has improved tremendously in the last few years and is more affordable than Caspian caviar.” Chef Rick Moonen told Gourmet Magazine, “I love buying American caviars. These are great products, and they're sustainable.” In Wine Spectator Magazine, Moonen said, “Just like we started creating great wines in California, we're going to be producing great caviar. What we've got is a great-quality product that's finally coming into its own.”

Traci Des Jardins' partner in Jardiniere and former chef Larry Bain, referred to the restaurant's decision to remove Caspian caviar from the menu in the San Francisco Chronicle, “This is really about stewardship rather than saying no to any fish variety… it's about changing the cachet, so that it's no longer sexy to eat the last of an endangered species." He later said in another interview with SF Chronicle, that “The California White sturgeon roe is the only one that competes with Caspian – osetra, if not beluga – when it come to briny, rich flavor and the size and texture of the glistening eggs.”

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