Writing about food and wine is fun, sure. It’s just that there are rules…and tortilla chips. | Monterey County NOW Intro Leave a comment
Dave Faries here, recalling the time I inadvertently stirred up a minor controversy in Spain.
I was nowhere near that country when things went down, mind you. At the time I was the restaurant critic and sports editor for an English-language paper in Prague and needed to fill space in a holiday edition. So I discussed how a professional critic goes about reviewing a restaurant, which involves anonymity, multiple visits, paying for everything (you get reimbursed by the paper) and the need to ignore your own personal likes and dislikes and be fair to both readers and the place in question.
The last bit may be the most difficult, but the job is to assess what the kitchen prepares. Anonymity is less of a struggle. I had credit cards with fake names—Robert N. Carter was my favorite, since it was derived from three Hogan’s Heroes characters—and did my best to avoid cameras.
Now this was some years ago, when food blogging by individuals was taking off. Someone in Spain read the story and emailed letting me know it had touched off a spat there. It seems that some of the bloggers in Spain were announcing themselves in order to get free meals, likely in exchange for a positive write up. Bloggers for some reason assumed that professional critics palled up to chefs and were not charged for what they ate. The ethical ones among them believed they were the saviors of food writing. They thought critics had taken it down an errant path.
My story made them realize the opposite was more often the case.
Social media has changed the way many restaurant critics operate. It used to be the norm to wait three months before reviewing a new spot, allowing them time to work out kinks. Social media is burned out on a newly opened restaurant after three months. And many papers want their critics to post on social media. Anonymity is no longer a requirement at these publications.
So the boundaries are not as strict. At the Weekly we decided to take a broader approach, without resorting to traditional reviews.
The demands of wine writing, however, remain pretty much unchanged. Each week I post a column, “Pairing Off,” which pits a bottle against foods one might not usually consider. My colleagues in the editorial department were surprised one morning when I informed them that I couldn’t sample a dish because I had a wine pairing planned and needed to keep my palate as zeroed out as possible.
It’s an easy trick when you are just tasting one wine. A few glasses of water with tortilla chips—my preference—or crackers in between and you are good…provided, that is, you also avoid scented soap, perfumes, lip gloss or anything else that will affect your perception of bouquet and flavor.
Palate fatigue becomes an issue when sampling several different wines in one sitting. A couple of glasses in and, well, is the black pepper you detect a reaction to the lingering finish of the previous wine? At contests, judges may have 30 samples or more in one sitting. Even though judges have palate cleansers between each taste, it’s difficult for me to believe fatigue doesn’t set in eventually—with an unfortunate (or maybe fortunate) impact on scoring. I’ve been a judge, and the uncertainty is nagging.
So how do you go about bringing your senses back to neutral? Like I mentioned, tortilla chips and water are my preference, although crackers will do. If you are sipping reds, salt helps ease the tannins. But sommeliers and other experts have favorites that range from the mundane—white bread—to the unexpected.
How about a swig of pilsner between glasses? I’ve never tried it, but some insist that it works. If you happen to have an underripe pineapple on hand, that’s a possibility. Bananas, celery and rare roast beef are common options. Olives—specifically the Graber variety—are another popular palate cleanser. There are a few more, but this is a start.
Just don’t forget to sniff medium roast coffee beans in between wines. You don’t want to suffer from nose fatigue, too.
