the times | Monday June 13 2022 23
News
James Bond, in his first outing in the
1953 novel Casino Royale, ate caviar
with “a mound of hot toast, and small
dishes containing finely chopped onion
and grated hard-boiled egg, the white
in one dish and the yolk in another”.
Were Ian Fleming writing about the
spy today, he might prefer him to eat the
caviar off the back of his hand with a
shot of ice-cold vodka. Caviar bumps, in
which fish eggs are placed on the flesh
between thumb and forefinger, are
being promoted as an accessible way to
eat the traditionally exclusive delicacy.
Harry Ferguson, operations director
of Exmoor Caviar, said that the method
was proving popular among younger
clients wanting to make eating caviar
more of a spectacle.
“The idea was a really posh tequila
slammer,” Ferguson said. “You do a
bump of caviar and a shot of vodka. It
tastes beautiful, especially if you have a
really cold vodka from the freezer. You
get all the buttery, oyster, creamy notes
of the caviar. About 50 per cent of
people who do it ask their friend to take
a picture, so it’s great for social media.”
The method is gaining popularity
among the public after long being how
those in the industry consume the roe.
tin.” Caviar consump-
tion has increased in
recent years with about
400 tonnes a year eaten
around the world but this is
about a tenth of what it was at
the height of caviar consumption in
the 1970s and 1980s. Sturgeon have
become a protected species so all caviar
is now from farmed fish.
Exmoor Caviar’s sales are 70 per cent
from its own farm and 30 per cent im-
ports. Its own caviar is more natural,Trendy diners find
a handy way to
enjoy their caviar
“Traditionally it’s a way we always taste
caviar in the industry, rather than dou-
ble dipping with spoons,” Ferguson
said. “Its derivation is more to do with
health and safety than glamour. It’s
quite a traditional Russian way.
“We do quite a lot of events. In the last
four or five years, we used to do canapés
to give to people. At a lot of parties
there are canapés and
there’s not much en-
gagement with it. We
thought: how can
we give people an
enjoyable exper-
ience?”
Exmoor, the
first farm to
produce stur-
geon caviar in
Britain, will
offer caviar
bumps at the
National Restaur-
ant Awards today and
at the Taste of London
festival this week.
Ferguson said: “It’s £5 for a bump,
which is about three grams, but we’re
quite generous so it’s usually more like
four grams or five grams. It allows
people to have caviar at a cheap price.
People don’t have to spend £100 for aJack Malvern
with a buttery texture rather than more
processed varieties.
“We see it as horses for courses,” Fer-
guson said. “It’s a bit like the three bears.
People can buy the one they like.”
Sales had doubled in the past year, he
said. “In the ten years we’ve been run-
ning we’ve noticed a big shift. It’s gone
away from that elitist market in private
members’ clubs and St James’s restau-
rants. The interpretation of caviar has
had a rebirth and become a bit cooler
again.”An anti-racism training course being
taken by academics at almost 100 uni-
versities is advising that “cancel culture
has been shown to realise benefits”.
Participants on Open University’s
Union Black programme are being
urged to share “collective expressions
of moral outrage” while teaching staff
are told “white people have a responsi-
bility to solve the problem of racism”.
“In relation to racial/social justice,
cancel culture has been shown to
realise benefits,” one module states, The
Sunday Telegraph reported. Course ma-
terials urge “due diligence before effec-
tively ‘cancelling’ someone”.
Examples of benefits include “hold-
ing people or entities accountable for
immoral or unacceptable behaviour”
and “promoting collective action to
achieve social justice and cultural
change through social pressure”.
The programme, launched last year,
was developed by academics with con-
tributions from the history professor
and TV presenter David Olusoga;
David Lammy, the shadow foreign sec-
retary; and Baroness Chakrabarti, a La-
bour peer. Baroness Amos, also a La-
bour peer, is on the steering committee
of the course. An Open University
spokesman said it was proud of the
course “which is aimed at increasing
awareness of racism and building ally-
ship to support inclusion”.It’s good to
cancel, says
university
David BrownNEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINEDiners in New York prepare caviar bumps, where they eat the
fish roe off the back of their hands to avoid double dippingtin
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rece
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:“It’s £5 for a bumpD
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