It's a legend that has
enthralled gourmets and gourmands ever since its genesis in the 1990s.
Deconstructed it is a warm, poached oyster served on a bed of warm sabayon of
pearl tapioca topped with a scoop of caviar. A mere spoonful whose mysteries
unfold on the palate. To taste it was to
savour each component separately and together: the silky custard suspended with
pearls giving it texture, the delightfully poached fine de Claire oyster and
the white sturgeon caviar lording it over: firm, nutty, and delightful like a breath of ocean air with
a tantalising saltiness. But its creator top American toque Thomas Keller has never tasted
it.
"I was walking down the aisles of a grocery store and there’s a box of purple tapioca with the word 'pearl' on it. And I think pearls come from oysters, so why don’t I put it together and add cavaiar to it. And bang the dish has been around for 12 years. I have never tasted it. I know what each component taste like, and I have an idea what the finished dish tastes like. I don’t do that for all my dishes."
Perhaps he fears tasting it could
mean being ‘forced’ to evolve it. Why mess with a classic!
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