Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another estadimida. We have Michael Passmoor, the founder and owner of Passmoor Caviar. We have here this incredible plate with a variety of caviar here at the deck at the Garden City Miami Beach. Beautiful and welcome.
Well, thank you. I mean, it couldn't be a more lovely day. I mean, look at this. We are lucky.
And definitely with this, it's a treat. So I'm very excited about not only learning about your story and how you're bringing the highest caviar into the table through chefs and directly to customers, but also to try it here live with everybody. So before we get into tasting it, tell us a little bit about you, your story and how do you get into this business. You know we got to go back to 2005.
So 16 years now. So it's a lot of time, but it's a little amount of time. And I'm personally foremost a fish farmer. So that's why I love the eggs is because that is how we continue to regenerate fish.
And that's what fascinates me. But 16 years ago, my wife and I wanted to have a little place of our own with some acreage, as we say, some elbow room from Texas originally. So we're in California and we found the perfect little place in the foothills of the Sierras, 40 acres of just raw land. I had just sold a small business and was pursuing a law degree at that time.
And I thought, well, could we make this property work for us? What could we do? Turns out my neighbor, Ken Beer, is one of the originators of raising surgeon and fish farming. He'd been doing it at the time.
Gosh, he'd been doing it almost 30 years at that time. So we began to talk and well, one thing led to another. I built our first lake and he said, I'll help you with that. And as I know now, many people say this, but they don't ever do it.
We did it. And it was extraordinary. Well, after the first year, my wife went out of town. I was on the four-wheeler drinking way too many beers.
I had my sketch pad out because I don't know about all this CAD drawing and everything. And I sketched out six more lakes because if one is good, seven is better. Yeah, that is better. And that is how we began.
You don't work directly with distributors. You go directly to the homes and working with chefs. That's absolutely right. And there's really a reason for that.
I suppose we could be much larger, but that's not really what drives me. Because this is reality. And this is what people are creating. Michael, we're talking about the experience.
And right now with people staying at home or limiting, dining outside, when they're going to a restaurant, they want to do it right. And they want to do it with an experience. And the chef showing the caviar and creating new dishes in a very elite way. Same thing at home.
When somebody is at home, you want to elevate their experience. They do. And I think one of the most fun things that I really enjoy about who and what we are is that so many people like Chef Joseph has done such an extraordinary job here. Well, then sometimes they say, well, Michael, how do you enjoy your caviar?
What is your favorite way? I kind of want to say, I like to go sit in the back of our ranch out by the lake there with my dog, Vandy, my wife, my partner, business and wife, big old tin of caviar, a big bag of chips and two ice cold bub lysers. And so it shows that we can both have elevated experiences like this. And also, it's OK.
You might be on your boat and you can still have a bag of chips and your favorite cold beer and still enjoy it. Very interesting year with the pandemic and leading at home, restaurants being closed, which is most of your business. Absolutely. Just very difficult.
Just very difficult. And really make it pass through. So immediately when I saw that this is a worldwide, this is spreading, I talked to my team. We have a very small team, a very small family business and craftsmen and everyone cares.
They said we are going to have a very challenging time for two years. I think it will be two years and we need to immediately stop all of our actions and resources towards the restaurants. I suspect that New York is just the tip. So we focus all of our effort into our home chefs and they responded with gusto.
It's been so much fun. We've been all over the country, don't tell anybody. Very small events. You know, very safe, but one of those experiences in their home.
That's so nice. And also, it's beautiful. When we talk about lifestyle, I love to ask always the question about what is luxury to you. But you know, lifestyle is something that comes in so many shapes and forms.
But we do enjoy what you do. And as you said, you can love a bag of chips with some elegant caviar and that's, you know, Luxury comes in so many different ways. And I think it is an indulgence. It is something that may even be readily available sometimes, but it's an indulgence.
When I think of luxury, you may laugh about me. It's not always necessarily the finest leather or something. It is. It's that bag of chips.
It's that moment that that taste. I mean, we're going to have some luxury here, but it's a fresh new pair of socks every morning. Bring flavor to your life, you know? And I think that there is nothing better right now to cushion your comfort.
Have some flavor. With lots of flavor inside. So, this here. I call it my Circle 41.
Circle 41 goes back to our cattle brand and my grandfather and his parents who homesteaded in Oklahoma. That was their cattle brand. So in remembrance of that, we've named that caviar that this is a less mature caviar. So it's got a higher salinity to it, which is great with a bag of chips and a cold beer.
It's absolutely wonderful. And we're going to enjoy it with this right here. And we're not even going to make it. We're just going to do it like that.
So this is a great dip in caviar. I absolutely love it for its more salt forward. So let's enjoy. Oh my God.
This is amazing. You like that, huh? It's good. I'm ready for the next one.
I think it's good guys. This is amazing. Oh my God. Circle 41.
So far on top. Okay. Now I'm going to take you through this. We're going to bounce around over to this one.
So you see this one has a little more color to it. That is, it's been in Mama's belly a little bit longer. So it has a little bit more fats, a little bit more proteins and salt when it combines with those things. That's what begins to develop some more complex flavors.
I think this is one of my favorite all around kind of go to ones. So on this one, I think we'll just, I'm going to make this for you. Perfect. And there like so.
And right there. Oh my God. This is Lux right here guys. I'll wait for you.
Well, and one thing while you're waiting for me, you'll notice that this is not a bed of ice is it? That is, this is rock salt that it's sitting on. And the reason why is everybody keeps their caviar so cold. I hate that.
Stop doing that. Keep it in your refrigerator, but I always put it in my red wine fridge before I eat it for hour or two because as it comes up, the flavors release. It's like drinking red wine so cold. Where's the flavor?
Exactly. Flavor, luxury. It just keeps coming back around. Huh?
It's a little good. Mm. Mm. Do good.
Fantastic. Good. Clean up my face. So this is a clean.
I'm going to skip over this one for a moment. We're going to move over into our little fish baritos. There we go. All right.
Now these are steelhead. What makes them so special is they're harvested alive. So they're spawned, you could say. Well, what that does is it makes it very porous because usually it's waiting for the Papa Fish to come fertilize except what we do is we fertilize with salts, truffle and whiskey.
Oh, no, Lee. It gives it such a wonderful flavor. Oh, Lee, oh, yeah. Now these also, because of that, they're so poppy.
It gives such a texture. Wonderful texture. So we're going to do this. Yeah.
We're going to do this on this one. We're going to give it a little something to adhere to there. There we go. They are so rich and poppy.
I love these with oysters as well. Losers. And just out there. They don't play on top.
There they are. Absolutely. You know, I think that found luxury today. Beautiful.
Beautiful day in Miami. It's kind of good. It's so nice to be out and about. It's just wonderful.
This is a luxury right there. You're right. Now I will ask you in a bit because you said circle 41 is your favorite, but it all depends on the moment, the company. So what about a nice sunny day in Miami like this?
I might scare towards this. You tell me. All right. All right.
Okay. Just bursting. The texture, the flavor really takes yourself to a different level. We could do this all afternoon.
Look. We have enough battery power. I mean, we could just go all afternoon. It'd be great.
Hey Alcan, we'll have everything else. We'll just stay here and enjoy this. And it's one of the most fun places. One of the most fun places.
This is incredible. Really tasty. Beautiful. And we're just working into the fish burritos here.
Oh, thank you. So I saved this one here. This is the reserve. So that has the most protein and fat.
This is a very mature egg. So it's going to be a little bit more robust too. Okay. And I chose that because I think it's going to pair so well with this and the flavors.
So I want that just total richness. So I'm going to do that. And we're going to do that. And the other thing, people need to remember, you can't.
Well first of all, you can't have enough caviar. But you need, people do such a small little bit of it. That's silly. All right.
I'm going to make a mess of you. But you have to get enough in your mouth. I mean, that's kind of the cardinal rule. You always got to get enough in your mouth to give it a good taste.
Yeah. And we're doing that right now. Absolutely. That's the way to go, right?
Yeah. You never want to be shy when you put the caviar together. Get that explosion and go down. That's great.
So this is also, again, I was so grateful that Chef Joe put this on the rock salt. The flavors are coming in. Yeah. It starts activating the fat.
It's a little hot. No, this right here. Michael, I'll tell you this. I'm from Spain, so this is right up here, Alec.
This is right up here. This is right here. It took me to a different strategy. I might have shared with Chef your name.
This may have been planned. It may have been planned. It was well planned and executed. Wow.
Michael, I got to say, what a treat. This is luxury. We need to do this more often. We need to do this more often.
I think bringing this experience to the homes and the restaurants is what really elevates the way we're living. It's one of my favorite things when I see these things when Chef Joseph puts this out. I see people grabbing in hands and they're all in it. That's eating.
That's together. That's family style. That's we're all enjoying it. Fingers because it's just so good.
This is incredible. Now, what a treat. What a story. Because there's always a story behind the brand, behind the quality.
I'm using this right there. Showed how 15 years of success of our work brings this into the table of many, many happy families. It brings us great joy to create and to serve. That's what gets us up in the morning.
This is great. For those of you watching, listening, Michael Tasmore, what a legend. Please make sure you follow him on his page. What is up to.
Beautiful caviar club. Amazing food. I mean, there is no better thing than what we're doing right now. Thank you again.
We can't wait to get back to Miami. Well, this is your home. Thank you guys. And make sure to follow him.
Thank you. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace it's beautiful success in life.
My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.