Beer with food - Beer essentials
Pairing beer with food won't just add value for your customers, it could also help smooth staff relations.
As a rule of thumb, if a dish has a particular beer in it, it will generally follow that the same beer will be a good accompaniment to the food. If beer is not in the dish, then we can follow similar principles to food-and-wine matching, where red wine is served with red meat, and white wine with white meat and fish. This massive generalisation has many exceptions, but parallels with beer can be drawn. So, for rich, full-flavoured meats such as game, smoked meats and sausages, serve big flavoured, robust, darker beers. Lighter coloured, zesty beers are more suited to fish and poultry. Pilsner lagers can bridge the gap as they cut through fatty red meats, as well as the oiliness in fish such as salmon and mackerel.
By introducing cuisine à la bière to your operations repertoire, you have a tool to aid the communication between front and back of house. Beer tasting is no longer the preserve of just the service staff, as the kitchen has a more direct role in determining the drinks choice of the customer. Far too often the kitchen is detached from the workings of the restaurant. Short of giving information on daily specials, it has very little influence over the choices and service experience the customer has.
Train staff to match beer and food Beer can bridge that gap. It can bring together the service staff and kitchen to identify a range of beers that can be matched with dishes on the menu. Try setting up formal staff-training programmes for beer and food, and print out tasting notes to support this. Obviously there needs to be a clear division of responsibility between kitchen and front of house, but regular joint tastings and exchanges of information and ideas are vital to maintain good communications and relations between the two departments.
Beer in its speciality forms can be that catalyst for the building of stronger interdepartmental relations. It allows the kitchen to have a much greater influence over the customer's experience. Beer adds interest to the dishes, with a story to tell as much as a flavour experience. It stimulates new ideas in the kitchen and creates a culture of ongoing development. It gives service staff a unique selling tool and enhances their knowledge, thereby creating a greater sense of achievement in the workplace. Ultimately, the customer gets added value.
The case for embracing beer as a serious gastronomic tool is now everywhere we look. For a start, there's a return to provenance and regionality in food purchasing. This is based on the common-sense principles of safety and taste. We're becoming more discerning and we want artisan products to satisfy our new-found passion for flavour. Quality beers fall into this category far more comfortably than cheap, mass produced wines. You only have to look along the supermarket aisles to see a range of regional craft brews which, a few years ago, had all but disappeared.
From a business point of view, it makes sense to offer greater choice and be seen as a leader in quality and innovation. Offering a range of fine beers not only speaks volumes about your approach to business, but it gives you a point of difference, particularly when that product range is supported by staff knowledge, tasting descriptors and the support of the kitchen. So, go forth, taste, market and sell, but above all enjoy the world of exciting flavours that combining beer and food offers.
