If you’ve ever opened a menu in a sit-down restaurant in Las Vegas, you have undoubtedly seen an abundance of special pairing menus. Some of these pairings are built for speed, to get you in and out before the show begins; some are built around special beverages; some are created as one-time-only events and some are built around the season.
But who decides what wine, what beverage, with what food? Well, it depends on the restaurant, the chef or the sommelier, but the end result is generally a meeting of the minds of the experts.
For a recent pairing dinner at Aureole, Mandalay Bay director of wine Harley Carbery had singled out a winery, Champagne Taittinger, nearly a year before and ascertained the availability of the winery’s export manager, Clovis Taittinger, for the night. Months before the dinner, chef Vincent Pouessel and Carbery sat down, discussing the merits of each bottle considered and the dishes Pouessel would design for the event.
Said Carbery, “Anytime we do a dinner like that, it’s totally crafted and sculpted around the wine. It is essential that the chef and sommelier produce some different references to flavor profile.” Sashimi, sea scallop and winter truffles all made the cut, accompanying Taittinger’s Prélude Grands Crus and Nocturne, among others.
But choosing the beverage first is not always the case. At Buddy V’s Ristorante in The Venetian, general manager Chris Chandler and chef Bryan Forgione recently went through a similar process in creating a special prix-fixe dinner for a week-long autumnal menu, Dec. 15-21, which focuses on beer and cider.
“Pairing beer with food, it’s a lot of fun. Just like wine, it has its characteristics … and although it’s becoming more popular, it’s sometimes overshadowed. Beer can be just as complex as wines are. It actually pairs very well with food,” said Forgione. In this case, three dishes were chosen that had fall notes: charred octopus, roasted chicken breast and apple pie. The octopus, accented by oranges, fennel and arugula, ultimately was paired with Blue Moon, a light-bodied wheat ale with citrus and coriander characteristics, bridging the flavors, said Forgione.
Brooklyn Winter Ale was chosen for the second course. “This is a great beer, very balanced, very round on the palate,” said Chandler. “You have light hoppiness, but it is very easy and so you can taste some of the sweet malt that’s in there as well. It’s very good with meats.”
For the apple pie, a range of ciders were sipped and evaluated for sweetness and flavor. Peach cider was rejected, along with a single-orchard cider and a seasonal blend. In the end, Jack’s Original Hard Cider, dry and crisp, won its place. “The trick is to find something (that’s not too sweet). You don’t want to overwhelm the palate with something that’s overly sweet. It needs to hint at the sweetness of the pie.”
And regardless of whether the wine (or beer) or the food is chosen first, and if the meal is being produced for 30 people or 100, the diner’s experience is key. During the intimate pairing dinner at Aureole, some of the wines and menu items are typically introduced and discussed, but others are left to the diner to discover. “You want to hear what emotion is produced, what images come up. (Some flavors) might remind you of vacation … it’s cool to hear,” said Pouessel.
Pairing menus this week: Buddy V’s Ristorante, beer pairing menu, Dec. 15-21, $65 plus tax and gratuity, 21+. 702.607.2355
The Pub at Monte Carlo, Tenaya Creek Brewery pairing dinner, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 17, $65, 21+. 702.730.7421
