InterContinental Sandton Sun and Towers vs Park Hyatt
Published: 10 Jan 06
Sparkling wine is an astonishingly versatile culinary partner, its simultaneous sensations of liquid and gas creating a three-dimensional taste experience. With its ability to mimic, evoke and enhance gastronomic depth of flavour and texture unsurpassed, Anna Trapido says Laborie Blanc de Blanc made an ideal choice for a WINE magazine Chef Shootout.In recent years culinary deconstruction and its Frankenstein cousin "molecular
gastronomy" have become very fashionable. The contents of restaurant plates
are increasingly far removed from domestic dining. Food comes as a wisp of smoke
or a cloud of foam. Dishes that were traditionally served hot now, almost inevitably,
come cold. Liquids are presented as solids. Comfort, love and generosity as motives
for culinary expression have been almost entirely forgotten, and there are even
chefs who advocate the experimental use of headphones during eating. Diners arrive
intimidated and leave hungry. A trip past the McDonald's drive-thru on the way
home is now a key component of the ironic post-modern restaurant experience.
In the context of all this nonsensical gastro-babble, it is worth remembering that culinary and oenological deconstruction is nothing new. Classic food and wine pairing has always been an exercise in deconstruction. Good chefs have always analysed and manipulated the inherent properties of foodstuffs in relation to each other and to the available wines.
We don't need experimental psychologists to teach us that food and wine pairings enhance and reveal depths of flavour. It's not science, it's just lunch.
Implicit in conventional food and wine matching contests is the principle that the wine is first among equals. Food is the regarded as the malleable agent moulded to meet the needs of the wine. This approach is limiting to both partners. With the benefit of the talent, skills and experience of two remarkable chefs we chose to create a dance of equal partners for the sparkling wine Chef Shootout.
We drank, ate and cooked with the wine in order to assess its properties in the round. When one cooks with a wine its reticent flavour compatibilities become
explicit. This method of analysis revealed traits in the wine that we would not have been able to access by means of a more conventional wine and food pairing exercise.
Klaus Beckmann, Complex Executive Chef at the InterContinental Sandton Sun & Towers Hotel, and Berno du Plessis, Executive Chef of Zafferano's Restaurant at the Park Hyatt Hotel, Rosebank, were both presented with an unlabelled bottle of sparkling wine and asked to analyse its contents and devise a menu that used the wine in a manner that accentuated the strengths of the food and the wine to the benefit of both. Food and travel guru Gwynne Conlyn and I were the extraordinarily lucky recipients of the culinary alchemy that followed.
At the Sandton Sun & Towers we were treated to a chef's table set up in the bustling hotel kitchen. This arrangement allowed us to watch the artist at work. Beckmann found that his "first impressions of the wine were of some Riesling notes, a harsh acidity, and an almost slatey quality that lends itself to the honest food flavours of the Alsace". This theme was evident in his choice of starter, Club Sandwich Chez Haeberlin, a delicious layered creation that Beckmann says was inspired by a visit to the three Michelin star Chez Haeberlin restaurant in Strasbourg, France.
Wafer thin layers of toasted pain de campagne were alternately spread with pâté de foie gras, grilled peaches, lobster, goat's cheese, vegetable crudité and then liberally drizzled with a shallot-infused sparkling wine dressing in which the usual vinegar had been replaced by our mystery wine. Conlyn commented that the dish created "a sublime harmony of texture between the frothiness of the wine and the creamy texture of the cheese, lobster and the foie gras while the grilled peaches successfully highlight the peachy aromas in the wine."
For his main course, Beckmann decided to "avoid heavy herbs so as not to overwhelm the plain astringent quality of the wine. If it had been a fat Chardonnay-based wine, I could have worked with herbs but I think that the character of this wine encourages the use of citrus and capers". In the light of this, he prepared confit of rock cod on sauté potatoes topped with citrus segments and capers and served with a sparkling wine sauce and agar-agar jelly brunoise.
The acidity of the garnish worked well with the dry sparkling wine, which had a tangible note of citrus on the nose and in the mouth. "To confit the fish is a stroke of genius," commented Conlyn. "Rock cod can be so dry but this way it has retained its inherent moisture while the use of capers is very bold in that it plays with the mousse of the wine." The cream based sauce was delicious but its richness upstaged the wine and consequently the result was not altogether successful as a food and wine combination.
Dessert was a beautifully presented Champagne granité served with a sugar cage on iced chocolate. Beckmann created this frozen dessert over dry ice while we watched, treating us to a spectacular chocolate spray gun demonstration.
"The crispness of the sugar cage calls for a wine in which texture is as important as taste and the wine provides textural sensation that goes wonderfully well with the dessert," said Conlyn. The delicious combination of simplicity and sophistication in the dessert perfectly exemplified Beckmann's work.
Zafferano's restaurant at the Hyatt hotel was the site of the second round of the Shootout. Berno du Plessis described the wine as "a nice, light wine perfect for lunch time" and explained that he had assessed the wine by flavour and texture and used this structure to determine the courses. "My first course concentrates on the earthy, musty undertones; the second course focuses on the light, fluffy, fresh feel of the wine; and dessert picks up on the spiced, nutty, fruity elements."
The starter of raviolo of porcini mushroom and black truffle with roasted pine nuts and a sparkling wine-based velouté sauce was superb, successfully bringing out dormant flavours in the wine without upstaging it. What Du Plessis described as "the smell you get off the land after it has rained in Franschhoek" was redolent in every sip. In the presence of the raviolo, the wine acquired a depth we had not previously suspected that it had.
After the triumph of the starter, the main course of grilled Scottish salmon with cucumber and sparkling wine risotto was disappointingly understated. The salmon itself was very pleasant and the mousse-like quality of the fluffy Arborio rice was ingenious. But truffles and porcini are so dominant a taste that the more subtle flavours of the fish and the cucumber were lost. Perhaps the flavour combinations should have been reversed so as to allow the delicacy of the cucumber and salmon to shine gently before the explosive brilliance of the raviolo. This disappointment notwithstanding, the wine continued to excel in the afterglow of the truffles.
The litchi bavarois, with a vanilla syrup soaked baumkuchen base, was topped with blueberries, a sparkling wine gelée and a saffron infused sabayon. The sabayon was still fizzing with wine bubbles when it came to table. Once again, this flavour combination was inspired and the wine divulged layers of aromatic spiced complexity that had been hitherto inaccessible. From the meal one had the sense of Du Plessis as a kind, unassuming and perceptive man eliciting the best from a reticent friend whose talents initially only he could see.
Both meals were superb. When one is working at this level of technical skill and talent for flavour, differentiating and picking winners seems almost churlish. As
Du Plessis said, "I don't like competitions; cooking is not a sport." Ultimately the differences related to personal taste and enthusiasm for the wine.
One couldn't fault Beckmann's cooking but his meal was designed around compensating for what he perceived as weaknesses in the wine rather than playing to its strengths. We were offered a demonstration of considerable showmanship revolving around the theatrical possibilities and professional tools that come with a large hotel kitchen but the wine remained reticent and was ultimately upstaged by the food. As Conlyn pointed out, "the food was great but by the end of the meal at the Sandton Sun we were all longing for something else to drink."
For Beckmann the glass was half empty and he was making the best of it whereas Du Plessis had the joyful air of a man whose glass is half full and brimming with possibilities.
In the context of all this nonsensical gastro-babble, it is worth remembering that culinary and oenological deconstruction is nothing new. Classic food and wine pairing has always been an exercise in deconstruction. Good chefs have always analysed and manipulated the inherent properties of foodstuffs in relation to each other and to the available wines.
We don't need experimental psychologists to teach us that food and wine pairings enhance and reveal depths of flavour. It's not science, it's just lunch.
Implicit in conventional food and wine matching contests is the principle that the wine is first among equals. Food is the regarded as the malleable agent moulded to meet the needs of the wine. This approach is limiting to both partners. With the benefit of the talent, skills and experience of two remarkable chefs we chose to create a dance of equal partners for the sparkling wine Chef Shootout.
We drank, ate and cooked with the wine in order to assess its properties in the round. When one cooks with a wine its reticent flavour compatibilities become
explicit. This method of analysis revealed traits in the wine that we would not have been able to access by means of a more conventional wine and food pairing exercise.
Klaus Beckmann, Complex Executive Chef at the InterContinental Sandton Sun & Towers Hotel, and Berno du Plessis, Executive Chef of Zafferano's Restaurant at the Park Hyatt Hotel, Rosebank, were both presented with an unlabelled bottle of sparkling wine and asked to analyse its contents and devise a menu that used the wine in a manner that accentuated the strengths of the food and the wine to the benefit of both. Food and travel guru Gwynne Conlyn and I were the extraordinarily lucky recipients of the culinary alchemy that followed.
At the Sandton Sun & Towers we were treated to a chef's table set up in the bustling hotel kitchen. This arrangement allowed us to watch the artist at work. Beckmann found that his "first impressions of the wine were of some Riesling notes, a harsh acidity, and an almost slatey quality that lends itself to the honest food flavours of the Alsace". This theme was evident in his choice of starter, Club Sandwich Chez Haeberlin, a delicious layered creation that Beckmann says was inspired by a visit to the three Michelin star Chez Haeberlin restaurant in Strasbourg, France.
Wafer thin layers of toasted pain de campagne were alternately spread with pâté de foie gras, grilled peaches, lobster, goat's cheese, vegetable crudité and then liberally drizzled with a shallot-infused sparkling wine dressing in which the usual vinegar had been replaced by our mystery wine. Conlyn commented that the dish created "a sublime harmony of texture between the frothiness of the wine and the creamy texture of the cheese, lobster and the foie gras while the grilled peaches successfully highlight the peachy aromas in the wine."
For his main course, Beckmann decided to "avoid heavy herbs so as not to overwhelm the plain astringent quality of the wine. If it had been a fat Chardonnay-based wine, I could have worked with herbs but I think that the character of this wine encourages the use of citrus and capers". In the light of this, he prepared confit of rock cod on sauté potatoes topped with citrus segments and capers and served with a sparkling wine sauce and agar-agar jelly brunoise.
The acidity of the garnish worked well with the dry sparkling wine, which had a tangible note of citrus on the nose and in the mouth. "To confit the fish is a stroke of genius," commented Conlyn. "Rock cod can be so dry but this way it has retained its inherent moisture while the use of capers is very bold in that it plays with the mousse of the wine." The cream based sauce was delicious but its richness upstaged the wine and consequently the result was not altogether successful as a food and wine combination.
Dessert was a beautifully presented Champagne granité served with a sugar cage on iced chocolate. Beckmann created this frozen dessert over dry ice while we watched, treating us to a spectacular chocolate spray gun demonstration.
"The crispness of the sugar cage calls for a wine in which texture is as important as taste and the wine provides textural sensation that goes wonderfully well with the dessert," said Conlyn. The delicious combination of simplicity and sophistication in the dessert perfectly exemplified Beckmann's work.
Zafferano's restaurant at the Hyatt hotel was the site of the second round of the Shootout. Berno du Plessis described the wine as "a nice, light wine perfect for lunch time" and explained that he had assessed the wine by flavour and texture and used this structure to determine the courses. "My first course concentrates on the earthy, musty undertones; the second course focuses on the light, fluffy, fresh feel of the wine; and dessert picks up on the spiced, nutty, fruity elements."
The starter of raviolo of porcini mushroom and black truffle with roasted pine nuts and a sparkling wine-based velouté sauce was superb, successfully bringing out dormant flavours in the wine without upstaging it. What Du Plessis described as "the smell you get off the land after it has rained in Franschhoek" was redolent in every sip. In the presence of the raviolo, the wine acquired a depth we had not previously suspected that it had.
After the triumph of the starter, the main course of grilled Scottish salmon with cucumber and sparkling wine risotto was disappointingly understated. The salmon itself was very pleasant and the mousse-like quality of the fluffy Arborio rice was ingenious. But truffles and porcini are so dominant a taste that the more subtle flavours of the fish and the cucumber were lost. Perhaps the flavour combinations should have been reversed so as to allow the delicacy of the cucumber and salmon to shine gently before the explosive brilliance of the raviolo. This disappointment notwithstanding, the wine continued to excel in the afterglow of the truffles.
The litchi bavarois, with a vanilla syrup soaked baumkuchen base, was topped with blueberries, a sparkling wine gelée and a saffron infused sabayon. The sabayon was still fizzing with wine bubbles when it came to table. Once again, this flavour combination was inspired and the wine divulged layers of aromatic spiced complexity that had been hitherto inaccessible. From the meal one had the sense of Du Plessis as a kind, unassuming and perceptive man eliciting the best from a reticent friend whose talents initially only he could see.
Both meals were superb. When one is working at this level of technical skill and talent for flavour, differentiating and picking winners seems almost churlish. As
Du Plessis said, "I don't like competitions; cooking is not a sport." Ultimately the differences related to personal taste and enthusiasm for the wine.
One couldn't fault Beckmann's cooking but his meal was designed around compensating for what he perceived as weaknesses in the wine rather than playing to its strengths. We were offered a demonstration of considerable showmanship revolving around the theatrical possibilities and professional tools that come with a large hotel kitchen but the wine remained reticent and was ultimately upstaged by the food. As Conlyn pointed out, "the food was great but by the end of the meal at the Sandton Sun we were all longing for something else to drink."
For Beckmann the glass was half empty and he was making the best of it whereas Du Plessis had the joyful air of a man whose glass is half full and brimming with possibilities.
THE CONTESTANTS
Klaus Beckmann, Complex Executive Chef, InterContinental Sandton Sun & Towers
Hotel,
Tel 011 780 5000.
Berno du Plessis, Executive Chef, Zafferano's Restaurant, Park Hyatt Hotel, Rosebank, Tel 011 280 1227.
THE JUDGES
Gwynne Conlyn, food & travel writer, author of Delicious Travel (Culinary
Adventures around South Africa).
Anna Trapido, Sunday Independent food writer, chef/lecturer at the Prue Leith College of Food and Wine.
THE MYSTERY WINE
Laborie Blanc de Blanc 2000
