Recently, I worked on a restaurant’s wine programme. It’s a spanking new Indian fine-dining restaurant, where the chef d’oeuvre is the grazing menu that spans all of thirteen courses and can last easily for two hours. The place is called Rooh and, for sake of objectivity, I will refrain from commenting along the lines of how lovely I find the place and just how amazing the wine listing (and the pricing) is. But, well, it is all rather lovely and cheerful.
With that sneakily said, let me share a secret with you—in spite of having done this (beverage planning and food pairing) for a living for almost two decades, never have I ever worked with an establishment and not found something new to learn from it. In fact, no matter how detailed my notes from the previous opening, the next one will nevertheless leave me with some prized learnings once again.
Here are a few things, even before the place has been opened for a month that has already made it to my notebook with double underline in red. Think of these as cardinal rules when pairing food with wine, sake, beer, spirit, or just about anything else.Timing: If the wine comes too early to the table or too much after, the compliment seems to diminish. It has to be timed to perfection—the beverage arrives leaving the diners just enough time to sip and savour it once by when the food should be there. If not, often the guests will put away all the wine, thereby leaving them with little or none when the dish arrives. And whoever thought of serving wine well after the food’s arrival was clearly not helping the cause of the sommeliers.
Temperature: For both food and beverage, and especially just as the guest tries them both, should be absolutely spot on, ie the temperature at which both chef and sommelier had intended to serve twosome. Warm can make it difficult to evaluate flavours while extra chilling simply suppresses it. This is true even of drinks and dishes which need to be served cold.
Accompaniments: If you draw the line at the sides and the sauce boat, then you haven’t truly understood just how far beyond the main plate their influence extends. For me, the accompaniment expands as a term to include the lighting, the music, the tablecloth colour and quality—they all have to pair up too, not just with the food and the wine but also with each other. Only then can the guest truly enthral in a seamless experience. Very often places get this bit wrong, they have it going all swimmingly well and suddenly an odd tune flows into the salon through the speakers and the spell is broken.
Know Your Star: At Rooh, food is the mast so I ensure that the wine (or other beverages) are the wind in those sails, the kind that gently guides the boat along this gastronomic trip with gentle nudges, not a heavy gale that rips through it all and capsises it. Otherwise put, the pairing is not perfect but just consciously underplayed so that the food sits atop. In a wine bar, or a cocktail bar, my approach would have been quite the opposite. It is vital to get this right.
Know Your Client: No matter how perfect all else gets, not knowing what makes your guest happy will always be that last gap to bridge. I can pair the best of wines with the food but if the lady likes beer, then success will remain rather elusive. The writer is a sommelier. mail@magandeepsingh.com