Ask Mario: a free monthly newsletter full food, restaurant & chef news etc - December 2005: Extending the Boundries of Good Taste by Sudi Pigott

Extending the Boundries of (Good) Taste by Sudi Pigott It used to be that culinary marriages were sacrosanct whether chicken and morels, salmon and sorrel, foie gras and sauternes or oysters and champagne. Thrillingly, in the brave new world of contemporary cuisine, culinary boundaries are being extended and conventions challenged - all good news, in careful hands, for those of us with inquiring, ever curious tastebuds. Besides Heston Blumenthal's much quoted snail porridge and bacon and egg ice-cream on The Fat Duck's tasting menu, John Campbell at the Vineyard delights in unexpected yet carefully considered taste combinations from lamb sweetbread risotto with Assam foam to crème brûlée with crystallised olives whilst Pierre Gagnaire's mind-boggling, adrenaline-charged creativity at Sketch currently runs to sirloin of beef with white grape stew and cocoa beans. Such daring pairings defy expectations and take how we taste to a higher level - it's not only about taste, texture and flavour but bringing together ingredients which are molecularly compatible and which trigger nostalgic and a myriad of other emotional responses which feed into and, at best, seduce the palate. Significantly, the most forward-looking corporate dining programmes are embracing such refreshing culinary curiosity. The new 5 Senses Experience at West London's Novotel offers a stylishly different way to entertain whilst discovering more about how we taste. Perhaps more provocatively still hallowed tenets of wine and food matching are being upturned. At one extreme, bastions of haute cuisine from Aubergine and Le Gavroche (London), Anthony's (Leeds), to The Fat Duck (Bray) are matching top-rated dishes with beers - witness Michel Roux serving rare pepper tuna with ginger and sesame dressing accompanied by Liefmann's Kriek cherry beer courtesy of the fledgling Academy of Beer. At the other extreme, the revered and highly influential champagne marque Dom Pérignon is intent on broadening the culinary boundaries of how best to complement its vintage champagne, even the ultra-rarified oenotech cuvées, beyond conventional luxury pairings. Those of us fortunate enough to be given or choose to serve our guests vintage champagne this Christmas should definitely not feel hidebound to adhere religiously to classic combinations - why not flaunt the season of goodwill by serving champagne throughout the meal I was privileged to join Dom Pérignon's cellar master Richard Geoffroy, who unusually for a winemaker, is a former doctor, who'd invited a wonderfully eclectic coterie of top UK chefs to Champagne expressly to create supra-palate-challenging dishes to ‘test the outer tasting limits' of champagnes from Dom Pérignon's collection. Throwing down the gauntlet Geoffroy announced he was ready to extend into unknown territory. It was a stellar chef line-up with Angela Hartnett of The Connaught, André Garrett of Orrery, David Thompson of Nahm, Peter Gordon of Providores, (London), and John Campbell of The Vineyard (Stockcross). As Thompson noted approvingly, as the meal progressed: ‘Richard approaches wine like a cook, deftly shaking up the overly reverential stuffy approach.' The experience was surreal: from fly-on-the-kitchen-wall whilst the UK chefs prepared in the chateau kitchen, to dining in the magnificent splendour of the grandest imaginable salon waited on by white jacketed and white gloved waiters. (The Trianon, at Dom Pérignon's Epernay HQ was actually created especially to entertain Napoleon, a great confidant of the founder of Moët & Chandon). The feasting commenced with the recently launched Dom Pérignon Vintage 1998 - unusually forward for its age with a fruity richness redolent of sweet almonds, cashews, sublimated by spice and the suggestion of toasted brioche. Peter Gordon served up turbot and scallop ceviche with yuzu, wasabi and watermelon - breaking just about every rule in the book. Rather than being horrified by the acidity of the dish, Geoffroy applauded Peter's bravado, explaining that the Dom Pérignon 1998 with its strong backbone, intense minerality and delicate silky texture can amply contend with heat and pungency. The New Zealand wasabi root in the dish has a clean, earthy taste, which only heightens the palate. As Gordon pointed out, there's not enough real wasabi grown to provide all the world's sushi bars - much is made from mustard or horseradish powder coloured green. Successive dishes too numerous to chart continued to challenge: Angela Hartnett's risotto with truffle, cabernet sauvignon and sherry vinegar and balsamic dressing was matched by powerful Dom Pérignon, Oenotech ‘62 whose decadent ripeness and acidity was more than a match for the mellow vinegar content. Even David Thompson's north-east Thai jellied curry of poached rabbit and lobster with turmeric and ginger was considered a triumph skilfully matched with the exceptionally full Dom Pérignon Rosé ‘82. Similarly, the toasty aniseed finish of a highly spiced guinea fowl curry with Thai aubergine, basil and roasted rice was astonishingly well-matched with Dom Pérignon, Oenotech ‘76. The champagne's incredible creamy richness acted to accentuate the spicy warmth of the curry and as Thompson pointed out ‘champagne's effervescence helps balance potent spiciness'. Dessert, too, was formidably matched - John Campbell's deconstructed post-modern pear Belle Hélène with confit of pears and aerated chocolate foam played up the virtues of a weighty, rounded, almost vegetal tannin-rich Dom Pérignon ‘66.