Food & Wine Pros

Who’s pairing what? From bacon and beer to Earl Grey and lemon cake . . .

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on November 11 2013 at 13:12

A new series for the Wine Pros section on what’s been happening in the world of food and drink pairing over the past few weeks:

Tea and food pairing

A report on how Typhoo India is getting chefs to experiment with different pairings for tea, an initiative also being adopted by the Cha Bar chain of tea cafés.

According to Typhoo spokesman Renu Kakkar “You can sip the English Breakfast with your egg bhurji and aloo paratha while the Earl Grey is good with mild English cheeses, lemon-flavoured cakes and desserts, like rabdi, falooda and kulfi.” For other ideas read this report in the Hindustani Times.

New wine and food pairing app

A new free app called MySommelier based on Google Recipe View has been created by Robert Ochtel (Chef Vivant) offering more than 5.9 million wine and food combinations linked to selected wines. A pro version is available at $1.99. Goodness knows how many that has.

Bacon & Beer pairing dinner

The Berkeley neighbourhood of Denver, Colorado has just hosted a sellout Bacon & Beer Festival including a five course Bacon and Beer Brewers' Dinner at the Wynkoop Brewing Company. The menu included bacon-wrapped shrimp mousseline with shrimp and chile consommé with Breckenridge Well Built ESB and Carolina BBQ quail with bacon-braised collard greens with sweet potato and bacon fritters with Wynkoop Kurt’s Mile High Malt

Some exciting stout pairings at Brasserie Blanc, Leeds

Another beer matching dinner at Brasserie Blanc in Leeds this Wednesday features a four course meal with matching beers from the Ilkley brewery including white onion and truffle soup with home-made beer bread, matched with Holy Cow, a 4.7% ABV cranberry milk stout and dark and white chocolate chilli beer mousse matched with The Mayan, a 6.5% chocolate chipotle stout. For the full menu see beertoday.co.uk.

TV chef Raymond Blanc whose name is behind the chain says he’s a fan of beer and food pairing. (True - he once hosted a beer dinner at Le Manoir)

Why Portuguese wines match well with food

Portuguese wine specialist Sarah Ahmed interviews a number of UK restaurateurs, sommeliers and retailers about why they’re into Portuguese wines and their favourite food matches. Vinho Verde whites come out tops for versatility. (First published in the July/August issue of Imbibe)

Innovative fizz pairings in New York

As part of the New York City Wine and Food Festival chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune created some innovative pairings for a range of sparkling wines chosen by wine expert Anthony Giglio (@winewiseguy) including Mionetto "Il" Lambrusco with Grilled Pigeon with Parsley-Shallot Butter and Liver Toasts and Soft-Boiled Pumpkin with Brewer’s Yeast and Ginger with Henriot Brut Millésimé 2005. For more on the event see this report on edgeonthenet.com

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