Husband & Wife Chefs Discuss Wine and Food Pairing

How many knights do you know who have raced vintage cars and taught at the California Culinary Academy? Or visual display artists equally versed in the secret Malaysian Nonya and French cuisines? These diverse sets of skills and experiences can be found in Roy Salazar and Julie Tan, each of whom has worked professionally with Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook.

Both Julie and Roy were educated at the California Culinary Academy/Le Cordon Bleu (CCA) in San Francisco years ago, and I had the honor of tasting some of their own cooking in the academy’s main dining room. I have enjoyed many of their concoctions since, but was particularly interested in their ideas on wine and food pairing, as both are certified Master Tasters and have taught classes in wine and food pairing at CCA.

Thoughts On Food and Wine Pairing
Roy Salazar

Salazar claims that any wine can pair with any food if the cook or diner balances the flavor in the food, as Tim Hanni, Master of Wine, also discovered in his research. However, this action might take an individual to about 80% satisfaction. He compares the experience to driving an old Volkswagen down a straight road without many turns. We can pair an inexpensive wine with any food and get such results. Salazar, like Hanni, has been experimenting for years with changing aspects of dishes for example, adding more salt and/or lemon to an entree to soften the taste of almost any wine paired with it.

"If something has an extreme element in it, I try to counterbalance it. For example, buttered popcorn with a malolactic chardonnay. Butter has too much fat, so I fix it with the acid of the wine. They both have a butter flavor, so work with similar flavors and use contrasting flavors, as well.”

An example of contrasts in matching is “…buttered popcorn with Coke. Buttered popcorn is salty, Coke is sweet. Buttered popcorn is fatty, Coke has acid. They work.”

To restate, “I agree with Tim [Hanni] on many issues. The universal matching will bring a person to an 80% satisfaction and matching agreement, yet there are some matches per person (individualized), that will satisfy a person 100%.”

Complex wines paired with food can “rock my world”, much like driving an expensive, beautiful Porsche on a winding road. “I enjoy luxury wines for the pure taste and complexity of these…each taste is like making a sharp turn at a high speed. It, needless to say, is very exciting.”