How Restaurants Portion and Serve Caviar

A loose mound of intact caviar beats a sharply sculpted quenelle of crushed eggs. Chef Thomas Wenger recommends delicate scooping rather than stirring or spreading: the beads should remain intact until eaten.

Caviar can arrive in an unopened individual tin or be weighed from an opened working tin kept cold. Either way, preparation and tableside service should keep time outside refrigeration short and reserve stock cold.

In short

• Set a gram weight for every dish. The site's 15 g serving is a reference, not a restaurant rule.
• Label opened tins with their opening time and follow the producer's instructions.
• Apply the foodservice temperature and time controls for your jurisdiction.

Set the portion before service

A quenelle is a shape, not a measure. The same spoon can carry different amounts depending on how it is filled, so write a gram weight into each dish specification instead of asking staff to reproduce a spoonful by eye.

Published recipes and service guides offer illustrations, not an industry-wide portion standard. Richard Corrigan's blini recipe on Great British Chefs specifies 35 g for two people: 17.5 g (about 0.6 oz) each, calculated by dividing the recipe total by its stated servings.

Browne Trading Company's service guide allocates a 30 g tin (about 1 oz) to one or two people for medium hors d'oeuvres, equivalent to 15 to 30 g per person (about 0.5 to 1 oz). These are the distributor's recommendations, rather than a legal or nutritional serving size.

The site's reference serving is 15 g (about half an ounce). For help choosing a portion, see portions by occasion. The task here is simpler: deliver the weight the menu promises.

Choose tools that protect the beads

Weigh the caviar, not its surroundings. Use a scale suited to the small portions on your menu, a clean weighing surface and a vessel that can be tared to zero. Check accuracy through the kitchen's equipment programme, and exclude the plate, garnish and spoon from the portion weight.

Smooth, non-reactive food-contact utensils help protect the eggs; mother-of-pearl and glass are options. Choose tools that can be cleaned effectively, then follow Wenger's gentle approach to scooping.

For a quenelle, the oval shape made with two spoons, weigh first and shape gently. Repeatedly working the roe for a sharper outline risks crushing the beads. A loose, intact mound is better than a compressed shape.

A caviar bump is a small serving eaten from the hand, with no standard weight. Use a separate utensil for that portion. A working spoon must never touch a guest's skin and then return to the tin.

Keep storage and serving temperatures distinct

The product's validated storage instructions come first. Codex CXS 291-2010 gives 2 to 4 °C (36 to 39 °F) during packaging, storage and retail, and -4 to 0 °C (25 to 32 °F) for wholesale storage and transport. This is an international reference standard, not automatically national law.

For tasting, Wenger suggests about 8 °C (46 °F), followed by immediate service over crushed ice. That sensory recommendation concerns the portion being served, not the temperature at which to hold a working tin.

Keep reserve stock refrigerated. Nest the serving container in a chilled presenter over ice. Corrigan likewise serves caviar in a bowl over ice; check that your arrangement maintains the temperature required by the product and your food safety plan.

Ice alone cannot tell you whether the caviar is cold enough. Keep meltwater outside the food container, replenish the ice as needed and check food temperatures with a clean, disinfected probe under the kitchen's monitoring procedure.

See keeping caviar cold for the detailed temperature discussion. The limits below govern foodservice controls; they do not call for warming caviar before every order.

Apply the rules where you serve

Cold holding rules change across borders. The following sources were checked in November 2026; build the local authority's requirements into your documented food safety management system rather than importing another country's limits.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, FSA display guidance allows one period outside chilled storage of up to four hours. Mark the removal time. The guidance permits return before four hours, but not repeated four-hour displays; food exceeding the limit must be discarded.

The US model Code's four-hour option requires written procedures, time marking and an appropriate initial temperature, normally no more than 5 °C (41 °F) for chilled food. Serve or discard by the deadline. Do not return it to stock. A separate six-hour route carries additional conditions and is not the method recommended here.

Repeatedly working the roe for a sharper outline risks crushing the beads.

Treat these as outer limits, not service targets. Routine caviar service should retain temperature control and bring out small quantities against actual orders. The hygiene and time-out guide explains the distinctions in full.

A portioning method for the pass

Prepare the station before the first order, so weighing and service can move promptly. This operating template assumes refrigerated service, not a time-only display system. Enter the product's actual storage limit and opening instructions in the kitchen record.

1. Prepare the station. Clean and disinfect the work area, wash hands, and set out the scale, clean spoons, covered containers and chilled presenter. Keep the station separate from raw-fish preparation.
2. Check the tin. Confirm its identity, use-by date and producer's instructions before opening. Label it with the opening date and time and the resulting discard deadline. Preserve the original lot information.
3. Weigh the order. Tare the clean serving vessel, then gently lift the specified weight into it. For a menu specification of 15 g (about half an ounce), the scale should show 15 g of caviar, excluding the vessel.
4. Cover the reserve. Close the working tin and return it promptly to its specified refrigeration. Browne Trading recommends gently levelling the remaining eggs and applying food wrap close to the surface, limiting air space without breaking them.
5. Send the portion. Set the bowl or tin securely over ice, keeping water outside it, and serve immediately. If using a permitted four-hour display procedure instead, record the removal time and deadline as specified above.
6. Control every utensil. Give staff a separate spoon for each taste, with no double dipping. A spoon that has touched a mouth, hand or used plate must never return to the working tin.

Give every opened tin a clear history

An opened tin's lifetime belongs to that product. Follow the producer's instructions and the earliest applicable deadline, including its use-by date. Moving caviar to another container or adding a fresh label does not restart the clock.

Rotate usable stock first in, first out, checking dates before opening another tin. At shift handover, pass on each tin's identity, opening time, discard deadline and any recorded temperature deviation. The incoming team should have its history, not have to reconstruct it.

Present the tin at the table

Tableside presentation can be straightforward and elegant. Wenger describes opening the tin in front of guests and leaving its lid visible beside the ice. Explain the species and portion accurately, and keep the service spoon separate from individual eating spoons. See classic caviar service for the Russian and French arrangements.

Reduce loss without compromising service

Track the grams as carefully as the portions. Order and open against expected demand, then reconcile the caviar issued with portions sold, staff tastings and discarded product. Record actual losses rather than assuming every gram in a tin reaches a guest; this is a kitchen control, not a promised yield.

Gentle handling and reliable cold storage address different problems. Wenger recommends delicate scooping to protect the eggs; the FSA supplies corrective guidance when chilled storage fails.

Smell and appearance cannot establish safety. Never return guest-exposed leftovers to reserve stock. For the wider operational setting, see restaurant, hotel and airline service within the caviar industry guide.