Bunhill: Rags to roe to riches

ALISON Roach and Joan Evans, two refugees from the rag trade, are causing something of a revolution in the caviare market. They have moved briskly and successfully into a market which amounts to 20 tons of the fabled fish-eggs every year.

A few weeks ago Roach and Evans jumped at an offer via some Swedish friends to take up the British rights to caviare from the upper, Manchurian reaches of the Amur river, before the sturgeon swim downstream through the polluted Russian stretch of the river on their way to the northern Pacific ocean. Even at pounds 250 a pound, Beluga caviare from the Amur is a lot cheaper than the Iranian or Russian equivalent, weighing in at something over pounds 900 a pound.

Already some of London's fanciest chefs are drooling over the stuff. Paul Flynn, chef at the newly opened Nico at 90 Park Lane, enthuses over the fresh salty taste and the firm texture of the eggs, which gleam like olive-green pearls.

Roach and Evans are also hoping to market their caviare in chilled sachets as a Christmas present for the gourmet who has everything.

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