Sturgeon Soup with Champagne

This soup, a favorite of the empress Catherine the Great, is very elegant—and very expensive. Legend has it that Catherine planned a visit to her consort, Count Potemkin, at a time when no sturgeon was to be had in all of Moscow. Potemkin, never one to give up easily, sought out a cunning fishmonger who supplied him with enough fish for the soup. But it cost him dearly. In exchange for the sturgeon, Potemkin relinquished a painting he had recently purchased for 10,000 rubles. But when Cathe