Trend: pizza with champagne
Entire books have been written about it, and hours have been spent philosophizing: what is the perfect combination of wine and food? White with fish, red with meat and sweet with dessert—that’s roughly how it works. But a few experimental foodies have a very different opinion.
In Naples, the birthplace of perfect pizza, they fold away a slice of pizza with an ice-cold can of cola or a beer. But this autumn, the Hilton is doing things differently: they’re serving a beautiful glass of champagne with Neapolitan pizza. How do you come up with that? Hilton chef Franz Condé clearly isn’t afraid to experiment a little with wine and food. “Chic and simple together, beautiful, isn’t it? Sommeliers in New York have been working with this trend for a while. When we started tasting, it turned out to be a perfect combination. The champagne is complex, the pizza is warm and crispy, and then there’s that melted cheese, hmmm…”
Cheap lambrusco, expensive ham
Isn’t that blasphemy in traditional cuisine? Not according to Franz. He often goes wild with his tasting experiments. That’s precisely how he discovers the best combinations. The crazier, the better, if you ask him. “In Italy I ate culatello, an expensive ham from the north of Italy. Delicious! You would expect an exclusive wine with it, but the locals served it with cheap, sparkling red wine instead. A kind of Lambrusco, so to speak. Brilliant combination!”
Bordeaux with mussels
Television chef, cooking teacher and culinary acrobat Robert Verweij isn’t surprised. “A lovely pairing because of the sweetness in the ham and the wine. And then the wine’s acidity to rinse away that fat,” he philosophizes. “But yes, you can talk your way into justifying anything.” He, too, has experience with an, shall we say, less obvious combination of wine and food. “I had promised my father-in-law a ten-year-old Château Poujeaux. But my wife had bought mussels. So what do you do? Just give it a try. I simply cooked the mussels in white wine with some vegetables. And would you believe it? The wine worked really well with them! People who dipped theirs in whisky sauce and garlic sauce were punished—the combination was terrible—but the mussels themselves with that expensive Bordeaux worked well.”
Fries – with the skin on
Franz would much rather have some fries: expensive Bordeaux with Flemish fries is his favorite. “Which Bordeaux? As expensive as I can afford. And then fries with the skin still on.” We’re not afraid to experiment either. Wine with kale stew? We’re all for it. Gourmetten? We know which wine to open. Shall we have a lovely Montrachet with the croquette? Absolutely, because white Burgundy is something of a Swiss army knife when it comes to wine-and-food pairings. “Especially with truffles,” chef Franz daydreams. “You might think: red, Italian. But I recommend white Burgundy. Delicious.”
Want to try it?
Would you like to eat pizza with bubbles too? Until 14 November, Hilton Amsterdam is serving a special pizza and champagne menu in the Half Moon Lounge (from 20 euros per person).
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