Using ‘bridge’ ingredients to create a perfect match

One of the most useful tricks to master, especially when you’re dealing with a tricky-to-match ingredient, is to introduce a ‘bridge’ ingredient - in other words an element in the dish that makes it easier to pair with the wine you want to drink. It can be something as simple as cream or mashed potato or something rather more specific that picks out a flavour in the wine you’re serving.

Cheese is the most obvious example. Some cheeses such as blue or washed rind cheeses are tough on wine but if you bring some other ingredients to the party (rather than other cheeses which will make the job even more difficult) the task becomes easier.

• Add a slice of walnut bread and a handful of dried fruits such as apricots, figs or raisins to a piece of Stilton, for example and it will be easier to match with an aged red like a Rioja. Or serve a bright cherry compote with a young sheep’s cheese as they do in the south-west of France and you’ll be able to pair it with a more full-bodied red than you would if you served the cheese alone.

• With chocolate too it can help to have a red fruit accompaniment if you want to serve a strong sweet red wine such as port (but not if you wanted to serve a full bodied dry red like a Cabernet where the added fruit would knock out the fruit in your wine, leaving you with a very tannic accompaniment. Your wine needs to be sweeter and more intense in flavour than the element you introduce)

• Pork or game like pheasant served with a light jus and apple sauce will immediately be easier to match with a fruity white like a Riesling or a young Chenin Blanc than if you serve it with a rich, wine based sauce which would lead you more towards a red.

• A rich potato gratin like a gratin dauphinoise served with your roast lamb or beef will soften the tannins of a young, angular Cabernet. (Cheese can act as a bridging ingredient too, for instance in salads where it can counteract the sharpness in a dressing and make it more wine-friendly.)

How do you know which ingredient to introduce? Well, just as you know what vegetables or other accompaniments to serve with your base ingredient - it comes with experience. If you’re a practised cook you’ll find it easy. If you’re less experienced this site is here to help you but don’t hesitate to drop me a line at fiona AT matchingfoodandwine DOT com if you’ve got a specific query.

See also How cream can help a fine wine match

Photo © Polina Ponomareva at fotolia.com

Can synaesthesia enhance our ability to appreciate wine?

Author (and self-proclaimed shopkeeper) Sally Butcher of Persepolis asks whether Grenache rosé reminds you of patchouli and Malbec of Beethoven. And are we missing out if we’re not fellow synaesthetes?

“Ever since I read Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale as a moody adolescent (believe it) I’ve been obsessed with the idea of food as a gateway:

O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene...

Agreed, wine has its own special ability to ‘transport’ the consumer, but the sensuousness of the lines perfectly conveys the power that taste has over the imagination and memory. We all have those seminal meal moments which remain key in our stock of food experience, and it can take but a whiff of this or a few bars of that song to transport us back to that time/place.

For some however flavour and aroma are far more deeply and habitually intertwined – and not just with each other. With sounds and sensations of touch and with the sight of a particular image, word or symbol. These people will regularly see dates and days of the week as colours, or associate smells with names, or hear music as a particular taste in their mouth. They are known as synaesthetes (derived from the two Greek words which mean ‘a coming together of the senses’: see? I can do erudite too).

The first time I came across the condition known as synaesthesia I was nose down in a bonkers-but-gripping thriller by the inimitable Dean Koontz*. Because most of our general knowledge these days comes from reading too much pulp fiction, yes . . . ?

Anyway, the concept did not seem nearly as strange to me as it should have done, because I suspect that I am a borderline synaesthete myself. As a child I can remember associating the taste/smell of singed toast with the name ‘James’, and citrus fruity sensations with the name ‘Henrietta’.... It goes on, but enough of that. I just assumed it was normal.

The thing is... studies suggest that we are all pretty much born with the ability to bring the senses together, and it is only as we mature that we ‘learn’ to differentiate (yes: I have read a book on the subject – a rather excellent one called “Wednesday is Indigo Blue” by Richard E. Cytowic and David M. Eagleman). Some of us however don’t bother to mature and retain the ability to experience a delightfully mixed array of sensations, not all of which can be easily put into words.

Right, so back to food, and wine. Well, if you go to Vinopolis (or any other wine theme park), they give you a fleeting impression of the synaesthetic pleasures to be had from wine by getting you to inhale two or three aromas (herbs, flowers, spice) and then sup at a wine which comprises all of those components. It is astonishing how the different smells combine into one flavour. Obviously everybody is different, but if you take this one step further, into everyday life, the experience is often replicated. You just have to be aware of the possibilities.

The gustatory and the olfactory are the most closely linked of faculties, and wine is heady stuff, rolling around your nasal cavity before hitting your tongue, so it is (in my very amateurish opinion) the single most likely substance to trigger synaesthetic experience.

But this coming together of sensual experience is everywhere: a slight breeze combined with the aroma of coffee can taste like almonds, feel like cat fur and sound like rai music; the smell of fresh coriander is blue and twangs like country and western; Wagner is a yellowy/orange and tastes of burnt toffee....

I’m not a scientist, nor am I an oenologist: hell, I’m just a shopkeeper. But. This should have interesting implications for the wine aficionado (or anyone who tastes and pairs anything for a living). Obviously everybody’s perceptions vary, but by way of example....

Most recently I found that a glass of Grenache rosé came together with some patchouli bath oil and soared to the sound of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis: they were all at one and the same pitch and offered the same (rather lovely, sadly fleeting) bath-time sensation. Previously I have noted that Malbec and (the smell of) ylang ylang and (much of) Beethoven all taste the same.

I am not suggesting that sommeliers ought to sample new wines in the bath with the radio on – merely that they should be aware that there is rather more to the effect of wine than whether it tastes of gooseberries and its percentage proof. Wine and food should be paired with consideration for all the senses.

It is of course quite conceivable that the greatest wine experts are in fact all closet synaesthetes, and I’m just ‘chattin’ shit’ (as my step-children are wont to say).

In conclusion I would urge: listen to your chocolate some more, feel your wine and inhale the soundtrack of your life.

And I’d be really interested to hear your experiences of this, especially in the foody/drinky sphere. Because we’ve all got a bit of the synaesthete inside us somewhere.

*It’s called Intensity – and I highly recommend it.

Sally Butcher is the author of the cookbooks Persia in Peckham and Veggiestan (both of which I can highly recommend FB) and runs the shop and online business Persepolis together with her husband, The Shopkeeper. For more about synaesthetics check out the UK Synaesthesia Society

Image of burnt toast by fkruger - Fotolia.com

Image of shadow poppies by Ralf Kunze 

 

Is there a scientific basis for wine and food pairing?

I went to a really interesting seminar last week on matching champagne with food. It was based on the chemical compounds flavourist Danny Hodrien of F & F projects had identified in Mumm champagnes using gas chromatography, solid phase micro-extraction and mass spectrometry (No, I don’t know what they are either). Based on those findings Iain Graham, the executive chef at the Caprice had devised a range of canapes that incorporated the flavours rather than seeking to complement them

The technical side I found slightly difficult to follow - we were encouraged to sniff a series of phials on the table which contained the different compounds then taste the champagnes then try them with food. Given the session was packed out it all got a bit chaotic but it threw up some fascinating combinations which I’ve now had the chance to analyse in a bit more detail:

THE FOOD PAIRINGS:

G.H. Mumm de Cramant
Style: Blanc de Blancs
Flavour compounds: Ethyl-2-Methyl Butyrate (apple, tropical fruits), Ethyl Isobutyrate (fruity, light, strawberry, tropical fruits) and delta-Decalactone (creamy, butter, coconut, peach)
Match: seared Orkney scallop served with cauliflower cream on a taro crisp
My verdict: A terrific match for this champagne which accentuated its freshness though one which oddly didn’t mirror the highlighted tropical fruit flavours.

G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge
Style: non-vintage
Flavour compounds: Dimethyl Sulphide (vegetable, crab, seafood, sweetcorn, tomato) Hexyl Acetate (pear, sweet, fruity) Caproic acid (sweaty, cheese-like, strawberry)
Match: steamed Atlantic prawns served with grilled corn.
My verdict: A match I suspect you wouldn’t have arrived at without the flavour analysis. Apparently grilling the corn was key - according to Iain it didn’t work as well with steamed corn. I found it slightly accentuated the dosage in the champagne though not unpleasantly

G.H. Mumm Rosé
Style: light, elegant, tasted of wild strawberries
Flavour compounds: Ethyl-2-Methyl Butyrate (apple, tropical fruits), Ethyl Isobutyrate (fruity, light, strawberry, tropical fruits)
Match: The shell fish and tropical fruit flavoured molecules of the ros were paired with yellow fin tuna sashimi and served with green mango and papaya salad seasoned with chilli, sugar and soy
My verdict: Another combination I wouldn’t have instinctively gone for but which worked very well. Interesting though that these components were also found in the Mumm de Cramant which I don’t think would have worked quite as well with the canap. Apparently Iain tried it with seared tuna but that didn’t work as well.

G.H. Mumm 2002
Style: mature vintage champagne
Flavour compounds: Diethyl Succinate (apple, tropical, star fruit, Cognac), Penyl Ethyl alcohol (rose, fermented, yeast, bread), Ethyl Crotonate (rum, sweet meat, pork, licorice) 2-Nonanone (blue cheese, yeast)
Match: Pork belly, dolcelatte and pain d‘epice: the yeasty, blue cheese and liquorice-like Mumm 2002 were paired with roasted pork belly served with macerated blue cheese and spiced bread crisp
My verdict: Like Iain I would never have put these ingredients together but they were surprisingly delicious. Would you serve them at a dinner party though, or, as a chef, in a restaurant? Can imagine them making a good burger . . .

G.H. Mumm R. Lalou 1998
Style: mature prestige cuve
Flavour compounds: Dimethyl Sulphide (vegetable, crab, seafood, sweetcorn, tomato), Furfural (almond, sweet macaroon), Furfuryl Alcohol (Sweet, grilled fish, Mushroom)
Match: Iain paired the R. Lalou’s mushroom and caramelised sugar flavours with roasted black cod served on crisp lotus with sweet miso marinade
My verdict: a bold but successful match which accentuated the richness of the champagne. (Can imagine it being good with something like lobster and vanilla too)

G.H. Mumm Demi-Sec
Style: off-dry
Flavour compounds: Ethyl-2-Methyl Butyrate (apple, tropical fruits), Ethyl Caprylate (cognac) Diethyl Succinate (apple, tropical, star fruit, Cognac), 5-Methyl-Furfural Caramel, sweet
Match: Apple and caramel millefeuille with cognac poached apple and crisp burnt sugar
My verdict: a stunning match. Interesting that there’s a scientific basis for the champagne cocktail!

Interestingly six molecules were found in all the champagnes: Ethyl Acetate which contains fruity, ethereal, sweet tastes and flavours, Isoamyl alcohol (fermented, whisky, harsh), Ethyl Caproate (pineapple and strawberry), Ethyl Lactate (rum), Ethly Caprylate (Cognac) and Ethyl Caprate (waxy fruity, apple, grape)

“There’s no one molecule that smells of ‘champagne’,” said Hodrien. “They are each like instruments in an orchestra. And orchestras containin the same instruments sound different depending on the music being played, or even the conductor”

A few thoughts:

• All the pairings worked which is unusual in an exercise of this kind though there was a bit of a ‘you could but why would you?’ aspect to a couple of the pairings such as the pork belly and blue cheese. A bit like Heston’s white chocolate and oyster pairing which was similarly scientifically based.

• Subjecting a wine to this kind of analysis certainly throws up combinations that you might not arrive it otherwise. And suggests that working with three or more flavours may be more successful than trying to match just one.

• It’s possible this exercise worked as well as it did because champagne - like beer - is a good carrier of flavour. I’ve found in the past that if you mimic the flavour of an ingredien with a still wine it tends to mask the flavour in the wine - like orange muscat with an orange-flavoured dessert.

• It still needs the skill of a chef. Not all the pairings Iain tried worked to start with.

• But even if you aren't a chef there are still some interesting ideas to take away - for example that rose champagne might match sashimi and a fruity salsa and that vintage champagne might be a good match for blue cheese.

 

An interview with Enrico Bernardo

If any sommelier looks set for Gordon Ramsay-style super-stardom it has to be Enrico Bernado.

At the age of 31 his eponymous Paris restaurant already has a Michelin star after being open for just six months and he’s opened another in the smart ski resort of Courchevel. Even his CV up to then is impressive - best sommelier in Italy at 20, head sommelier at the Georges V (where he spent six and a half years) at 24, the youngest ever Best Sommelier in the World at 27. Oh, and he’s written a couple of books including a massive 500 pager of tasting notes on the wines of the Mediterranean Mes Vins de Méditerranée.

On top of all this he’s come up with a really neat idea which is to open a restaurant where the food is dictated by the wine. You choose what you want to drink, the chef decides what you eat. There’s an a la carte menu of some 13 wines (prices include an accompanying dish) and 6 set menus which range from a lunchtime menu en vitesse at 50€ to a no holds barred evening prestige menu at 1000€. Does anyone actually go for that? “In the six months we’ve had 30 people taking it. We’ve sold more Petrus here than I did at the Georges V.” Bernardo laughs.

The idea behind the concept, he says, is to give customers the opportunity to explore the wine world with simple, straightforward Italian food. A lot of top restaurants have big Bordeaux and Burgundy lists and luxury ingredients like foie gras but people are looking for different experiences. Don’t people want to know what’s on the menu though? He shrugs. “When you go to dinner at someone’s house you don’t know what you’re going to eat and drink. People discover the quality of the food is good here. They don’t worry about it.”

The menu and wines change every week depending what produce is in season and Bernardo’s current vinous interests. “We hold a regular Friday morning tasting where we taste 12 dishes and 12 wines. Bernado who also trained as a chef comes up with the suggestions. His chef Davide Bariloni creates the dishes. “We go with the initial idea in 60-70% of the pairings. In 30-40% Davide changes the sauce or the garnish. I change my ideas all the time. My idea for the next couple of months is to offer one wine with two different dishes.”

My husband and I road-tested two of the lunch menus recently - the four course ‘a l’aveugle’ blind tasting menu (75 €), an elaborate version of the options game where you know neither the wine or the food you’ll be getting and a five course La France du Nord au Sud tasting menu at 180 euros which started off with a . . . er, Franz Hirtzberger Gruner Veltliner Honivogl, an excellent match for a carpaccio of sea bass but hardly French. “What happened there?” I asked Enrico. “I’m Italian” he shrugged as if that explained everything.

Although the longer menu offered three outstanding matches (the Gruner and bass, a risotto with morilles with a 2005 Ballot Millot Meursault Les Criots and a Domaine Gentile Patrimonio Rappu with tiramisu Bernardo committed the cardinal sin (in my book) of pairing a tannic young red Bordeaux (a 2004 Loville Las Cases) with a Reblochon, offset only by a slice of fig bread. It was a predictably appalling match. I was curious about this as on the la carte his pairings for cheese included the much more contemporary matches of a 1996 Pichet Chateau Chalon from the Jura, a Duvel beer and a 1989 Rivesaltes and Bernardo’s own preference with a cheeseboard, he admits, is for vintage blanc de blancs champagne. Pressed, he conceded that his predominantly French clientele expected red with cheese and a wine of this calibre in a menu at this price.

The blind tasting menu, which my husband took, was better value both from a financial point of view and in terms of entertainment value and I freely admit that Bernardo got the better of us. We mistook an uncharacteristically rich Bourgogne Aligot from J M Boillot (well paired with a Jerusalem artichoke soup with a balsamic vinegar drizzle) for a South African chardonnay and a heady 2005 Domaine Courbis Saint Joseph (served in a black glass with a dish of lamb and Mediterranean vegetables) for a Malbec. (We should have known an adopted Frenchman would stick to French wines) We more or less hit the spot with a Bernard Gripa 2006 Saint-Pray (perfect with oriechiette with spring vegetables) which we correctly identified as a Rhone white and a Montlouis Moelleux from Chidaine (gloriously paired with fresh mango and raspberries) as a Loire dessert wine.

Interestingly there were no Italian wines. Why, I asked Bernardo? He shrugged again. “Basically I prefer Italian red to Italian white. My favourite wine regions are Burgundy and the Northern Rhone. At home I drink wines like Saint-Aubin, Crozes Hermitage, Cote Rotie, some Barbera d’Alba. Not Bordeaux - it’s too expensive.”

“I’ve noticed a move away from powerful wines like Amarone and Shiraz that are impossible to drink at table to wines with more elegance and lightness, especially at this time of year. In spring I look more to Austria, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa for interesting whites.”

Compared to the master of food and wine pairing Alain Senderens who I’ve mentioned before on these pages. Bernardo’s matching menus are less painstakingly conceived and less refined but Il Vino is a more relaxed experience - a bit like a very classy, designer wine bar although Bernardo is reluctant to categorise it as that.

“In France there are different types of restaurant - brasserie, bistro, gastronomic. In Italy there are just restaurants. We are a restaurant with fresh seasonal food a nice wine selection and good service. Not sophisticated just comfortable.”

“Too many industry professionals go in for a competitive approach with long explanations for every dish. My view is if you want a spectacle go to the theatre. People are going more and more for simplicity.”

It’ll be interesting to see how well Il Vino does once the novelty of the concept wears off or whether Bernardo will have to revert to a conventional menu. In the meantime this ambitious young wine professional already has his eye on further expansion. In Italy? “No! I love Italy but I’d never work there again. Maybe London . . . Or maybe I’ll go back to the kitchen one day.”
Maybe. With Bernardo I suspect you can never rule anything out.

Il Vino d’Enrico Bernardo is at 13, boulevard de la Tour Maubourg, 75007 Paris. Tel: 01 44 11 72 00 www.ilvinobyenricobernardo.com

This article was first published in the July 2008 edition of Decanter.