Before they became so commonplace, food and wine pairing
dinners were some of the most exquisite and memorable experiences a diner could
have. Chefs would spend weeks imagining, testing and refining their menus,
working with a winemaker or sommelier to create singularly satisfying dishes that
paired with different wine experiences, course to course. The chosen wines
would pay homage to the layers of flavors and textures in the food and the artful
dishes would highlight the characteristics and personalities of the wines.
Harmonic excellence was the goal, the wine making the food taste even better
and the food, in turn, elevating the wine experience.
As their popularity grew, wine-food pairing events extended
far beyond the traditional venues of fine dining establishments. Pairing events
became the rage at neighborhood eateries far removed from the chic downtown
centers of the country’s hippest cities, at prices ranging from the ridiculously
affordable to the once-in-a-lifetime extravagance.
Yet today, the choreographed beauty and balance of the wine
dinner is under threat. The culprits are not volatile, overworked chefs or snooty,
out-of-touch sommeliers. Rather, the threat comes from the diners themselves,
who, it need be stressed, have elected to attend a wine-food pairing event.
In choosing to attend, these diners generally understand
that the focus of the evening will be a series of courses and wine pairings
that have been designed to create culinary magic that is focused and specific, therein
providing the value and raison d’être
for these special gastronomic-oenophilic experiences.
Notwithstanding this prior knowledge, however, diners now
present laundry lists to chefs and proprietors listing their food
sensitivities, intolerances, allergies or mere distaste for certain ingredients
that mustn’t be used at the wine dinner. Sometimes, these guests inform the
culinary team of their exceptions in advance of the event – and sometimes not,
seemingly unaware that dining establishments are not also grocery stores with pools of unbusy skilled laborers.
Here is a recent list of exceptions given to a small
establishment:
Multiple guests:
Shellfish allergies
Gluten intolerant
Vegan
Paleo
At least one guest:
No red meat
No fish of any kind
No nuts
No dairy
No green onions
No shallots
No red onions
No mold (no mushrooms, no blue cheese)
No cheese
No celery or lettuce
No dairy
No pineapple
No crab
No clarified butter
No mango
No melons of any kind
No garlic
In fairness, about 1% of the population can be expected to
have a true gluten allergy. However, many gluten-related and other claimed food
sensitivities are often self-diagnosed, misdiagnosed, overdiagnosed or are more
a matter of personal preference or belief than a true medical exigency.
Altogether, up to 3 or 4% of the US population has a food
allergy, although 15% – four times as many people – believe they have a food
allergy. Cranking that small establishment’s numbers, the tally would appear to
hover north of 50%.
Miraculously, one guest’s food allergy was reported to
vanish at a wine dinner once the aromatic, allergenic plate of a tablemate appeared,
causing the food-allergic guest to about-face and to request the unmodified,
original dish instead, the one containing the previously objectionable
ingredient.
Because the hospitality industry aims to accommodate and
please the guest, chefs and sommeliers have attempted to extend themselves, including guests with food issues to these special wining and dining experiences.
But at what cost? Does a modification of a dish that was originally crafted to marry
seamlessly with a certain wine now deliver the intended food-wine experience after
certain key ingredients have been left out or substituted, too often at last-minute? Moreover, how many
alternate, highly specific non-this/non-that dishes can a chef and his/her kitchen staff reasonably
be expected to prepare in the frenzy of a food and wine pairing dinner, which
usually is a boundaries-pushing version of that dining establishment’s usual
fare and often includes exotic ingredients, precise timing, innovative
preparations and meticulous plating and presentation?
In hospitality terms, a wine dinner is similar to a banquet
planned for a group of guests. That is, there is a set menu that has been
previously been vetted and agreed to that will be served to everyone. Sometimes
a meat or fish or vegetarian option is offered, sometimes not. Compare that to
a personal preference or a la carte dining experience in which each diner is
free to choose from a menu of offerings, some of which may include vegan,
gluten-free, healthy choice or other options.
Whereas wine dinners are planned and executed more like
banquets, today’s diners have come to view wine dinners as personal preference
opportunities, regardless of the consequences for the chef or for their fellow
diners. In a sense, the food exceptionalists are akin to the anti-vaxers of the
elite dining experience, it being the exceptionalists' personal (and often nonscientific) issues
that govern the consequences for the majority.
Sadly, the restaurant, hospitality and food and beverage
businesses can expect to encounter more food and drink exceptionalists. It
might also be expected that imaginary toxicities, overpersonalization and
overinterpretation of maladies will spread to affect wine service. The wine
exceptionalists' list might begin as follows:
No sulfites
No additives
No non-native yeast
No non-organic wines
No imports
No synthetic corks
Now doesn’t that sound like a fun wine event?
Perhaps, as one chef ruefully suggested, we should just
serve cereal at the next wine dinner. Organic, non-GMO, vegan, dairy- and
gluten-free, of course. Oh, and hold the cereal.
