Basic HTML Version
international beers. Calgary’s River
Café is internationally known for its
contemporary Canadian cuisine and
its wine menu. However, chef Andrew
Winfield said beer is increasingly
comparable to wine, with restaurant
patrons preferring specific brew styles in
combination with their meals, and simply
being eager to try new tastes.
“Now it’s becoming more
mainstream,” he said. “It’s right for a chef
to pair a dish with an ale as opposed
to a wine.” River Café now offers
such pairings on occasion, and hosts
dining events that focus on beer as the
accompaniment.
Beer’s rise in the food scene also
owes a lot to upscale dining becoming
much less rarified, and beer more
sophisticated. The two have met in the
delicious middle.
“Beer is the new wine, and wine geeks
are the biggest beer geeks,” confirmed
Mike Tessier, co-owner of Artisan Ales,
a Calgary beer consultant and importer
of craft beers. Tessier is a beer purist and
champion of craft beers, and his clients
include Co-op liquor stores as well as
independent wine boutiques. “With the
Quebec and European breweries I deal
with, lots of places that were primarily
well-known Irish folk
song, “Whiskey in the Jar,” ends
with its doomed subject wistfully
reminiscing about life’s simple pleasures,
especially beer. He certainly doesn’t long
for a glass of Pinot Noir on his way to the
gallows. Beer has long been a working
class delight, but chefs are now elevating
the juice of the barley, choosing it in
place of wine as an accompaniment to
upscale cuisine.
Not any old brew will do, however.
Chefs and contemporary restaurant
diners aren’t content to wash down
their meals with whatever big-name
brand is at hand. They want the beer to
complement their meal and enhance the
dining experience.
The impulse to pair beer with food in
this way is relatively new to Alberta. The
province is a slow and steady participant
in a craft beer explosion that has
gripped the West Coast from Seattle
to Vancouver. Independent breweries
from Calgary’s Big Rock Brewery and
Wild Rose Brewery to Edmonton’s
Alley Kat Brewing Company are now
producing dozens of lagers, ales, stouts
and porters.
Many finer Alberta restaurants
feature a selection of these local and
wine-focused are drawn to that craft beer
market,” he said.
Artisan Ales recently held a food-
and-beer tasting event at Calgary’s tiny
Taste restaurant, which even employs its
own Cicerone, the beer equivalent of a
wine sommelier. Tessier enjoys briefing
restaurant staff on the art of pairing beer
with food. “‘Oh, I see you’re having
steak or chocolate cake, well this beer
would be awesome with that,’” he says.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to work—
people like to experiment.”
“The future of the craft beer market
is nothing but growth,” said Tessier.
Though beer-food pairing is a new
restaurant trend, the juice of the barley
has successfully made the jump from
the go-to beverage of backyard
barbecues to the world of fine dining.
The phenomenon is limited only by the
creativity of chefs and brewers.
In May, Winfield was named
Canada’s outstanding chef at the
2014 Terroir Symposium, a prestigious
hospitality industry honour, and River
Café owner Sal Howell was named the
nation’s best restaurateur. Below is a
series of dishes created by Winfield for
GrainsWest
. Each is paired with a craft
beer selection.
There’s some takes delight in the carriages a rolling . . .
But I takes delight in the juice of the barley.
And courting pretty fair maids in the morning bright and early.
The Food Issue
2014
grainswest.com
35
A
Beer and food pairings take centre stage
by ian doig • photos by Marnie burkhart