Food & Wine Pros

Pairing Indian food with the biodynamic wines of Bonny Doon

Posted by Fiona Beckett on June 5 2010 at 10:49

I have to confess I found it pretty hard to concentrate on the finer nuances of the food and wine combinations at the recent Cinnamon Club dinner. But when the speaker is the discursive Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon and you're sitting next to him that's no great surprise. Before the meal had even started we were into Kierkegaard and a vigorous discussion of terroir in the bar below over our glasses of Vin Gris de Cigare (a typically unorthodox full-bodied rosé based on Grenache, Cinsault and Roussanne).

A menu for Riesling

Posted by Fiona Beckett on May 20 2010 at 07:47

Earlier this week I was involved in judging a selection of South African rieslings at High Timber in London and afterwards we had a three course lunch that had been designed to match with them. This is what we ate and drank.

Clever pairings for rare sherries

Posted by Fiona Beckett on February 10 2010 at 09:36

I don’t think I ever go to a sherry tasting without coming away renewed in my conviction about what a marvellous match it is for food and the one I attended yesterday was no exception. It was organised by the enterprising Les Caves de Pyrne who are importing for the first time into the UK some rare sherries from Emilio Hidalgo and took place at Dehesa, the sister (if that’s the appropriate word) restaurant of the better known Salt Yard.

Organising a wine and seafood pairing dinner

Posted by Fiona Beckett on February 5 2010 at 16:08

Last night we had a fun five course wine and food matching dinner at Rockfish Grill in Bristol which showed the range of wines you can match with fish. Here’s a few thoughts about how we approached it for those of you who are organising a similar event.

What's the best way to introduce food and wine pairing into your restaurant?

Posted by Fiona Beckett on October 21 2009 at 08:41

More and more restaurants are introducing an element of food and wine pairing into their menus. It may be simply a question of suggesting a wine that is available by the glass to go with a dish or a more ambitious food pairing experience - the key thing is that both the front of house and the kitchen can pull it off.

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Matching wine and charcuterie - an experiment

Posted by Fiona Beckett on May 13 2009 at 07:18

About the most daunting audience that anyone could face is a group of wine writers, especially if a number of those happen to specialise in food and wine matching so it was with some trepidation that I agreed to lead a tasting on wine and charcuterie in London on Monday night on the eve of the London International Wine Fair.

Matching wine with fusion food

Posted by Fiona Beckett on March 20 2009 at 19:25

There seems to be quite a buzz around pairing wine with spicy food at the moment - detractors saying it’s a waste of time, people like me saying that on the contrary you can derive a good deal of pleasure from it.

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