Day three! Our class had a visit from Cindy with the ISG (International Sommelier Guild). She reviewed the classes and exams/certifications the ISG offers. At the end of this class we can take the first level exam for sommeliers. They offer a second level exam as well as an 8 month diploma program. This would not make us Master Sommeliers (which is somewhat akin to getting your PhD). I'm thinking about it.....
Then Chef Carl came into the class room to cover tasting. We use all our senses for cooking and eating: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. And we have five taste sensations: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (savory). I didn't know that MSG (the epitome of umami) was developed by accident in Japan in 1908. It enhances food but apparently people started using so much of it in dishes that it started causing headaches, etc; so MSG is no longer used in many foods. It is a naturally occurring chemical in nature and I was surprised to find out it tastes pretty good on it's own! Learn something new every day! Then we spent about 30 minutes tasting everything from granulated sugar to pomegranate molasses to sea salt, unsweetened cocoa powder, MSG and Miso-about 30 in all. Very enlightening exercise.
Our second lecture of the day was on wine and food pairing. You can do use several guidelines when pairing wine with food:
*Regional Pairs (say you want to make a meal with recipes from the south of Italy. You could pair this with a wine from the south of Italy.)
*Wine in Food, Wine in Glass (Serving the same wine to drink that you used in your recipe).
*Food & Wine Chemistry (using foods that change the flavor of wine. Food tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salt and umami) will intensify or decrease wine tastes (sweet, sour, bitter).
*Power matching (the intensity (or lack of it) of the wine should match the intensity of the food).
After the lecture, we sat down and tried six different wines with a "cold plate" which contained grapes, apple slices, lemon slices, raw asparagus, green olives, kalamata olives, walnuts, sea salt, blue cheese, parmesan cheese, peppered brie and semi-sweet chocolate. It's amazing how food effects how wine tastes! After that, we had a plate of steamed halibut with buerre blanc sauce, roast pork with a mustard sauce, pan-seared flank steak with black peppercorn mushroom sauce, and grilled chicken with a tomato sauce. These were paired, with and without the sauces with the same six wines.
Everyone was able to walk out of the room after these tastings but I am very glad none of us was driving!! We'll be back at it tomorrow........
I did learn one other item of interest. You know how you were always told you should drink a red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat? Well...the French came up with that idea after World War II when they found they had a surplus of red wine. They thought-"Oh, we can sell it to the Americans, they eat a lot of cow..." And because the French were the recognized "wine experts", the Americans believed them and so these "wine rules" were passed along.
"The pleasures of eating and drinking operate on so many levels that hard and fast rules simply make no sense." -Oz Clarke
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