WHEN I started out, I really didn't like caviar,' confesses Laura King with a smile. 'In fact, I hated the stuff.' Which wasn't exactly the ideal start for a career spent selling the most expensive fish eggs on earth.
But now, 30 years later, King's Fine Food is the UK's largest importer of caviar, with a turnover of nearly $3 million. 'I must have tried thousands of varieties and have come to love and appreciate caviar. But I still get so excited when trying out new batches.' It's a couple of weeks before Christmas and King's headquarters, on a small, nondescript Twickenham industrial estate, is deep into its busiest time of the year. Every surface is covered with boxes, labels and invoices and in vast fridges, hundreds of different-sized tins-from tiny, two-bite 10g minis, to mighty 1kg monoliths-are piled up, ready to be couriered to the likes of Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, Claridge's, The Ritz and Scott's.
'Everyone mucks in here, from taking pallets to the tip to packing and labelling,' says Mrs King, clad in a hairnet and white coat, and sitting behind a vast 1.8kg tub of Belgian Oscietra caviar. She's been decanting the contents into smaller tins and it takes all my resolve not to dive headfirst into that slategrey mass of gloriously gleaming eggs. For the caviar lover, this place really is Nirvana. But Mrs King seems to read my mind. 'It's hard work,' she notes, and not at all glamorous.
Denne historien er fra February 14, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 14, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
