An appetite for ale

Lucy Britner meets authors Will and Fiona Beckett to talk beer, food and Scarlett Johansson

Most of you are talking about it, some of you are doing it - and a few of

you do it so well, you've started to experiment.

Over the past couple of years, beer and food-matching has crept in through the cellar door of an increasing number of pubs. Brewers are pushing the product, willing it to take its rightful place on the dinner table.

Trailblazers such as Mark Dorber, formerly of the White Horse, in London's Parsons Green, and beer writers Susan Nowak and Richard Fox, have long championed the cause. The level of activity is increasing with the Beautiful Beer campaign and the Beer Academy's Making Beer and Food Dance seminar, and, of course, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) has been on-side to drive quality and interest.

So when mother-and-son team Fiona and Will Beckett pitched the idea of a beer-and-food cookbook to Camra, the organisation said yes. Fiona is a celebrated food and drink writer, whose work has featured in many publications, including The Times. Will co-owns the Under-dog consultancy and four pubs and bars in London.

Fiona says: "I've written about food and drink for quite a while - mostly focusing on wine. Occasionally I'd taste beer with food at an event and think 'wow'.

"But no more was being done with beer on the table, so we came up with the idea for Appetite for Ale. When you go out on a summer evening and see people drinking beer outside, you just know there won't be beer on the table when they go home - it's wine all the time. That's a real anomaly, because this is a beer-drinking nation. That doesn't happen in Belgium or Germany - or increasingly, in the States. It's a great tradition, but we don't have enough pride in it. When I was talking to Camra, I discovered they thought the same."

Changing people's social perceptions of beer-drinking might be the key to making it a more popular dinnertime tipple. Fiona says: "I think people often secretly fancy a beer - and if they thought it was OK to go out and order one in a smart restaurant or felt confident about serving beer at home, it would be more popular. They worry people will think they are cheapskates, but actually, you're pretty smart if you put a decent beer on the table. We hope this book will help to change beer's popular image."

Recipes in the book range from relatively straightforward beer and onion gravy - an ideal start for those who want to dabble - to more adventurous dishes, like a Japanese-style winter vegetable stew with miso to match Belgian brune beers, and carbonnade of beef cooked with Orval.

Fiona created and adapted most of the

recipes herself. She says: "I tried to find things that people really enjoy eating and go really well with beer or benefit from a twist that includes beer. Spaghetti Bolognese is a good example - Italian is probably the least successful cuisine to match with beer. Our spag bol is quite smoky, as it includes smoky bacon, which makes it beer-friendly."

"You should always learn something from writing a book - for example, our desserts were quite a revelation. There are some great combinations, such as the chocolate and cherry roulade with kriek (cherry) beer. And beer jellies and sorbets are great fun and easy to make."

She says: "It's really more about cooking technique - you have to learn to cook with beer because it doesn't work in the same way as wine. For example, you can't deglaze a pan with beer. If you slosh beer into a hot pan, all the liquid reduces and you're left with the bitterness. You have to deglaze with stock, bring the temperature down and then add beer.

"You can marinate with wine for a long time but, as I found one morning, if you marinate with real ale, the enzymatic activity is so vigorous that the meat turns overnight. I'd estimate the maximum marinating time at about two hours. You also have to adjust the seasoning slightly because beer lacks acidity and has more bitterness."

Will champions what he dubs "classic bloke stuff" such as the beer-can chicken, adapted from a recipe by America's barbecue king, Steven Raichlen. It involves cooking a barbecued chicken containing a half-full can of beer.

He says: "It releases all kinds of flavours. Once I'd tried this recipe, it was non-stop beer-can chicken throughout the summer."

Using beer as an ingredient and beer and food-matching are hugely popular in America. According to Fiona, beer-improving happened in the States a good five to 10 years earlier than in the UK. She says smaller brewers, such as Greenwich-based Meantime, and some larger brewers, such as Greene King and Hall & Woodhouse, are doing their bit for beer and food, but Fiona and Will are not convinced we'll be on a par with Belgium any time soon.

Fiona says: "Beer is deep-rooted in countries such as Belgium: everyone's brought up on it. But I don't see why we shouldn't catch up with the States. It only needs a tipping-point."

Will says one of the biggest arguments

for drinking beer over wine is that it costs consumers less. "If you wanted to drink the best wines in the world, you'd spending hundreds of pounds at least, but with the best beers, you can afford to do that at home - or in a pub - on a Monday evening."

Although it's good for consumers, beer prices aren't necessarily a winner for licensees, and beer ties can make the concept of beer and food seem unattractive. Frankly, wine offers a much healthier margin.

Will says: "It's difficult - if a couple have a main course and bottle of wine, we'll sell £15 worth of wine. If they have a beer each, we'll sell £6 worth of beer. In that respect it seems a bit like a no-brainer, but since we've pushed beer and food, people do turn up here looking for beer. They enjoy the matching aspect and the beer and food-matching menu. Beer is a real selling-point that gives pubs an advantage over restaurants, and it should be exploited."

Serving beer with a meal also gives the diner greater flexibility and the freedom to switch beers between courses.

"At the Marquess, we have about 30 different beers. Our range includes beers flavoured with heather, those made with Champagne yeast, and fruit beers. There's no reason why you can't bring in a beer at the dessert stage or even with cheese.

"If two customers are dining together, buying a bottle of wine is a bit prescriptive - especially if you're not in that kind of mood and certainly if you want to change drinks between courses. If you wanted beer, you could quite possibly have three bottles of beer between the two of you without drinking very much at all - probably two or three units each - and enjoy three different tastes."

The Becketts are impressed with Camra's efforts to bring beer into the lifestyle arena.

Fiona says: " I think it (Camra) sees its job as extending its message. Will and I are relative outsiders as far as Camra is concerned - and fairly new to beer. So Camra was interested in having us on board because we typify the

kind of people they want to read the book: those who like drinking beer, but want to know more about it.

"We hope the book is the start of a life-long love affair with beer."

An Appetite for Ale costs £19.99 from

www.camra.org.uk and all good bookshops

The Becketts' beer and food tips

1 Start simply. The book covers items such as pork pies, sausage rolls and sprats that usually go with familiar beers. A pint of Young's bitter goes down well with a sausage roll.

2 Aim to encourage customers to spend a little bit more. We try to persuade drinkers to eat a little something - just as they do in Germany.

3 Set yourself apart and take time to consider your beer selection. Stocking the usual line-up would limit our potential. We've made the effort to go out and find beers that are a bit different - especially those that the 10 nearest pubs don't sell.

4 Make sure staff know what they are talking about and have tried the dishes on offer.

5 Pubs pushing beer and food have a massive ad