Delivering a compelling experience is critical in delivering sales and profit into your restaurant or hospitality business. Experience is made up of more than the food, but also what drinks are on offer and how our diners are engaged in the whole process of menu, choice and drink.
Beer and Spice – Old Hat
Wine and Ethnic cuisine has always presented itself as a challenge for the wine and food connoisseur. According to the traditionalists it never quite gels. Yet every table service Chinese, Indian, Thai, Mexican and Japanese restaurant in the UK has wine available because customers demand it.
The old adage was to drink beer, as ‘wine didn’t go with the spices’. Was this a cover for men to drink large quantities of beer when wine was seen as a female drink?
The changing landscape of the UK wine and food market suggests that this is old hat and that consumers want to have a sophisticated experience when they are dining out and it is our job to deliver against that challenge.
Importance of Authenticity
Market research suggests that authenticity has much to do with ethnic restaurants being seen to deliver a credible consumer experience. When it comes to wine it may be more tricky to navigate the authenticity, but it is not only possible, but necessary if this growing and exciting sector of the market is to extract value with pleasure.
Authenticity doesn’t necessarily have to mean provenance i.e. the wine must come from the place that food comes from geographically. An interpretation of authenticity might be that the hospitality provider has thought about the matching and expressed why the wine matches the food.
How consumers purchase wine is changing, they are buying less but better and as a result they expect more from their purchasing and drinking experience.
Wine is becoming a special occasion as opposed to a weekly supermarket purchase and therefore ideally placed to be the drink of choice in a restaurant or hospitality venue, placing a greater level of emphasis on this area of the dining experience.
Exploring the Boundaries
So the challenge that we face as providers is to be able to give the customer what they want with credible and entertaining wine choices. Looking at the simple chart below, the basic boundaries of ethnic food and wine are described.
| TASTE | ETHNIC FOOD | WINE |
| Sweet/Dry | Often has a touch of sweetness | Dry to sweet and everything in between |
| Flavour | Spicy powerful, Fragrant | Has wide range of aromatic flavours |
| Texture / Body | Light and delicate or creamy, rich or oily | Has acidity which either matches or balances |
We tend to think of wine as drier, with largely more subtle flavours; whereas Ethnic foods often have a stronger taste profile. However with a little creative thought and some lateral thinking on this basis there are no reasons why wine cannot match with different ethnic foods.
By starting with the above template we can identify wines, which best match them to the style of food that the outlet is serving whether it is Chinese, Indian, Mexican or Thai.
Join Me to Find out More
At the Great Hospitality Show Wine Matching with Ethnic Food and Wine Feature on Thursday 25th January at midday we will be exploring some different avenues of wine using the whole spectrum of senses available to us in order to match with a number of different proposed Ethnic food dishes.
Sight, smell, and taste as well as some of the finer details of acidity, aromatics and even Umami to get under the skin of the Ethnic food and wine matching opportunity.
We will take a look at some statistics about the wine market its general direction and what that means for serving wine with the tasty side of food.
Most of all we will be tasting some suggestions and examples that don’t fit the usual mould and yet are excellent matches for Ethnic menus, the foods and experiences. Come and join me to have some fun in identifying some simple solutions for matching Ethnic food with wine.
Alistair Morrell
Hospitality & Catering News, Wine & Drinks Editor