Food And Wine Pairing - How to Create a Delicious Meal

So much fuss has been made over the “proper” combination of wine and food that many new cooks are actually turned off by the thought of serving wine with their meals. The fact of the matter is that wine can be a perfect accompaniment to fine dining, and you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment. Here are some tips on food and wine pairing that can get you started.

 

Why is Wine an Important Part of a Fine Meal?
Wine has become an integral part of fine dining over the years, not just because it slakes thirst or makes people tipsy, but because the right wines can accentuate the flavors of a meal. Wine clears the palate and brings certain flavors to the forefront, while counteracting strongly salty or bitter tastes. It can be used like any other spice when it comes to preparing great foods.

Why is Matching Wine with Food Important?
Just as wines can enhance the good flavors of fine foods, the wrong pairings can make foods taste metallic, bitter, or overly sweet. Some people dedicate their entire lives to discerning the exact flavors that come from wines made from different grapes, stored in different casks, and aged for different lengths of time. This is, for example, the job of sommeliers in upscale restaurants.

 

However, you don’t have to be a sommelier or a wine fanatic to make good choices about the wines you serve with your meals.

What are the Most Important Factors for Pairing Wine with Food?
A trained wine lover can detect a vast array of different flavors in a glass of wine, and use those flavors to pick the perfect matching food. However, wine novices can do a good job pairing wine by paying attention to the following elements:

 

· Body – A powerful wine with a rich body should be paired with strong, richly flavored foods. Otherwise, you run the risk of the wine overpowering the flavors of your meal. For example, a hearty merlot could be served with blackened steak or spiced lamb, whereas it would probably be too strong for a lemon-drenched fillet of sole.
· Flavor – Sweet wines go well with desserts and sweet main dishes, whereas acidic wines are well-paired with tart sauces, salad dressings, and salty foods. Bitter wines cut through the bitter taste of sour meals. It’s a good idea to make sure that the flavor of the wine is at least slightly stronger than the matching flavor of the meal or else the wine might seem dull or even sour. For example, avoid serving a very sweet dessert with a mildly sweet wine.
· Alcohol – Usually, the lower the alcohol content of the wine, the better it matches the foods you are serving.

You might have noticed a theme when it comes to food and wine pairing – “like with like.” It’s usually easiest to pair wines with foods that have similar characteristics. This also holds for the old standby, white wines with white meat and red wines with red meat. Most red wine contains a bitter element called tannin which comes from the skin of the wine. Tannin tastes best with fatty, red meats.

 

Two More Wine Pairing Tips for Great Entertaining
Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics of pairing wine with food, there’s something else that you should know – it’s also all right to break the rules. If there were one specific way of pairing wines with food, there wouldn’t be a need for sommeliers. Here are two important tips for creating not just a great pairing, but also a great meal:
· Match the Wine to the Guest. You might think that a good Riesling is the perfect partner to your famed seafood dish, but if your guests only drink red wine, they won’t enjoy it. Make sure that you put the people who will be eating your meals before any wine pairing rules.
· Surprising Combinations Can Be Startlingly Good. Just as sometimes cooks will pair a tangy sauce with a sweet dessert, sometimes breaking the “like with like” rule can have a delicious effect. Don’t be afraid to experiment, especially once you become more familiar with the subject of food and wine pairing.

 

Food Costing - Everything You Need To Know About Food Cost

Food cost and labour cost are the two major aspects that can make or brake a restaurant. While labour cost is relatively easy to control, it is often not the case with food cost. When opening a new restaurant, the fun part ends with the creation of your menu and the real work begins with the food costing. You can use industry standards if you want to, but the most important thing is to create products with a low cost and high perception of value.

Usually the industry standard for food cost is 30-35% for the entire menu. However, there are some exceptions. For example if you are opening a sushi bar, you should strive to achieve 22-25% food cost, because otherwise, with prices such as $7 for a sushi roll, there won't be almost anything left for you after you pay your staff and all the bills.

 

Costing your menu starts from your food suppliers. A good food supplier should be able to tell you, for example, how much is the cost of a single 6 oz. chicken breast from a 4 kg. case. If they don't know (think if you want to deal with a company like that), simply count how many are in a case and divide this number to the price. When you cost all the ingredients you will use for the entire recipe, add them up. Make sure you include table condiments, napkins and add 2% for food wastage. If the final amount is for example $6, divide 6/.30=$20 menu price for this item. If you divide 6/.33=$18. In the first example your food cost is 30% and 33% in the second. For some higher end menu items, such as filet mignon dinner or lobster tail, you can go to 40% food cost, because these items bring better margin to your bottom line. For example, if your fillet mignon dinner cost you $10 including sauce, potato and vegetables, you can sell it for $25 instead of $30. It still brings $15, which is better that a chicken parmesan dinner that costs $6 and sells for $15-16. Likewise, you should price pasta dishes at no more than 28%.

It may seem that you are making a lot of money, but unfortunately this is not the case. Keep in mind that you aren't just paying for the food itself. You are paying someone to prepare the food, serve the food, wash the dishes and even to some company to wash your table covers.. Everything in your restaurant, from payroll to the electric bill needs to be covered by the food you serve, and this is even before you cover your capital investment and pay yourself.

Since prices for your food supplies fluctuate, keep the menu cards with your food costing for your record. You may need to adjust your serving sizes or your prices sometime in the future. This is only if prices go up, which is of course the case most of the time. If you find a cheaper product with the same quality down the road, you don't have to reduce prices.

To really understand what your real food cost is you should keep truck of what you have sold and each item's contribution to your bottom line. This requires measuring your sales against the cost of your supplies about once a month. It is also very important to implement proper portion control and minimizing wastage.

 

Reducing food cost:

If your calculations and your real food cost don't match, than you should pay special attention to portion control and wastage. You can print a monthly wastage sheet and stick it to your fridge door for the staff to record any wastage. For example, if two iceberg lettuces go bad and have to be thrown away, the cooks must record it for the day. It may not seem much today, but at the end of the month it accumulates and may be even more than the two percent that you added to your food cost as wastage. And also, when you calculate your food cost, don't forget to take into account any free or subsidized meals that you might be providing for the staff.

 

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