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The transformation of the degustation: riding the wave of new degustation experiences |
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Monday, 14 December 2009 |
From the standard multi-course meal to the newer 'tea-gustation' and 'coffee-matching', the idea of dinners matched to a beverage of choice is taking off around Australia. Jane de Graaff talks to the people championing the transformation of the degustation...from cocktail to coffee matching.
Nathan Wakeford is on a mission. He's worried that Australian's aren't getting enough out of their tea. Wakeford is convinced that our lack of education is robbing us of the best that tea has to offer, and so he's using gourmet food to try and change the situation. Welcome to the shifting world of the degustation. Once the realm of multicourse dinners matched to wine, the new degustation is finding its inspiration in a variety of beverages — the one common factor that each tasting menu is designed to bring out the best in both the food and the drink.
By incorporating tea into the idea of a degustation and taking the beverage to new heights with accompanying dishes, Wakeford joins a movement that has recently seen the degustation include dinners paired with coffee, beer, spirits and now tea. The aim is to educate and stimulate diners, encouraging us to think in new ways about food and drink pairings, and it seems to be catching on.
'Tests showed me that tea pairs with food just as well, or better than, wine,' says Wakeford, managing director of Somage Fine Foods.
 'Tea can enhance significantly the food you're eating and vice versa,' he explains, referencing a recent round of "tea-gustations" hosted in Sydney and Melbourne, where chefs including Manu Fieldel (L'Etoile) and Adriano Zumbo (Zumbo Patisserie) developed dishes to complement select teas sourced by Wakeford. The degustation, or tasting menus, presented dishes that were heightened by their tea pairings and used tea as an ingredient to further enhance the dish.
Wakeford isn't the only one using degustation to educate consumers in his product. Salvatore Malatesta, the man behind Melbourne's St. Ali coffee and the new David Jones Sensory Lab, is championing coffee in much the same way. It was his coffee degustation dinners that inspired Wakeford.
'What we tend to do is like a wine degustation, there might be four, eight or even twelve courses — but they are matched with coffees.' Says Malatesta.
'The dinner might be [accompanied by] Colombian coffee only, (of all different grades), or it might be in-season Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. We determine which brewing methods suit the different coffees best, and then we go to the chef to work on food matches.'
What's most important with the matching is highlighting that coffee is not just the standard espresso-with-milk-and-sugar, but rather that it has levels of subtlety and complexity that can be enjoyed in different ways — this is where the selection of caramel flavours to citrus or floral notes brings cohesion to the experience.
'It's about being able to showcase the coffee…and in particular showing that coffee is actually a fruit. We show the coffee and then show that it goes well with the food,' explains Wakefield.
Again it's about using food and drink combinations to open diners up to new ideas, rather than to cement or reinforce accepted food and drink matches.
The marketing team at Bombay Sapphire has employed the same method, where earlier this year they hosted several cocktail degustaions aimed at showcasing the different botanical notes present in their trademark gin. The dinners were a series of dishes with matched cocktails, created to highlight botanicals in the drink that might otherwise go unnoticed, from liquorice to orris root (iris).
'[The degustation] gives us the chance to work closely with chefs to create the perfect flavour match.' Says Damian Kaehler, Victorian brand ambassador for Bombay Sapphire.
'When a chef is given the job of creating a food match with wine or beer he or she has to use an already existing flavour from that product,' Kaehler explains 'with cocktails we are able to create a drink exactly the same way a chef creates food.'
The aim was to show off the versatility of Bombay Sapphire, as much as to show that cocktails can be built to match food in ways that wines cannot.
 For Adriano Zumbo, working on the degustation of dessert dishes to go with Wakeford's teas was a welcome challenge, pushing him to find a balance between the tea and the dish.
'Like any food and drink matching, it's about getting a great flavour combination, the food and drink creating something entirely different in the mouth.' He points out that no matter how innovative the food and drink match, the final result still needs to be pleasurable to really draw diners in, particularly when challenging them with new paring ideas.
For Zumbo the idea of tea and dessert matching was an exciting idea to be embraced, but does he see the new direction of the degustation taking off?
'Absolutely. This year people like Matt Kemp have done whisky dinners at Balzac and The Burlington and I think lots of other food and drink matching events will spring out of that kind of inspiration.'
So the humble degustation has come a long way from simply offering diners the chance to sample the chef's signature dishes, avoid plate envy or take decision making out of the equation. The current trend is for the degustation to be transformed into a platform for gastronomical education, not only taking the accompanying beverage into account, but using it as a springboard for new ways of approaching the tasting menu. So drink up!
Jane de Graaff
Author profile: About the author
Author website: Play With Your Food
Links and further information:
• Somage Fine Foods:
http://www.somage.com.au
• Adriano Zumbo Patisserie:
http://adrianozumbo.com
• St. Ali:
http://www.stali.com.au/
• L’Etoile:
http://www.letoilerestaurant.com.au/
• Bombay Sapphire:
http://www.bombaysapphire.com.au/
• Forbes world’s most expensive tasting menus:
http://www.forbes.com/
• Bitchen in the kitchen (home degustation):
http://bitcheninthekitchen.com/index.html
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