Episode
The Caviar Whisperer: French Farming, Fine Dining & Finding Gold in Sturgeon Eggs
- Podcast
- Sensing Up
- Published
- Mar 17, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2170
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://smellycheese.co/pages/sensing-up-podcast
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Summary
In this sumptuous episode of Sensing Up, Valerie Henbest sits down with Guy de Saint Laurent — a Frenchman whose career has taken him from yeast factories and foie gras kitchens to the world's most exclusive caviar farms. Guy shares the remarkable journey of French farm caviar, the science and soul behind producing it, and why Australia's culinary scene is fast becoming one of the most exciting in the world. Bring your five senses — and perhaps a glass of champagne. We begin with foie gras — what it is, how it's made, and why it has become so controversial. Guy explains the natural origins of the gavage process, traces its history back to migrating birds, and shares why champagne, not Sauternes, is his preferred pairing for cutting through that signature richness. From there, Guy walks us through his unlikely career — starting as an export manager for Le Saf, one of the world's largest yeast producers, before moving into foie gras with Rougier and eventually finding his way to the world of premium caviar with Sturia. It's a journey that took him from Normandy to Africa, Paris to China, and ultimately to the Gironde river in Bordeaux. The heart of the episode is the fascinating, little-known history of French farm caviar. After the Bolshevik Revolution, White Russian exiles living near Arcachon watched local fishermen throw away the eggs of the native Gironde sturgeon in disbelief — and taught the French how to make caviar. That tradition survived until overfishing forced a ban on wild sturgeon in 1982, which eventually led to the birth of France's first caviar farm and its first harvest in 1996. Guy walks us through the extraordinary effort behind every tin — from hatching and hand-sexing 20,000 fish a year via X-ray, to biopsy, firmness testing, hand-salting with 300-…