This article titled “Cooking with beer: it’s not just batter” was written by Max Brearley, for theguardian.com on Friday 9th May 2014 08.43 UTC
A glug for the pot and two for the chef – that’s the traditional image of beer in cooking. For years, food and beer have been matched on menus with little more more thought than for what’s in the kitchen and what’s at the bar. But there are solid signs of change, with restaurants across the country beefing up their beer lists and giving ale its rightful dues as both ingredient and partner to great food. Is this just a flash in the pan or may beer’s culinary place beyond batter soon by assured?
Melbourne Good Beer Week (17-25 May) will demonstrates the step up beer has taken. Festival director James Smith has seen the “foodie” part of this year’s program sell almost as many tickets as the “beer lovers’” strand you’d expect to be the hit. The popularity of craft beer is undoubtedly driving this new interest. In the same way that we value the provenance of our meat or vegetables, the same can now be said of our beer. It’s unimaginable that there would be such fervour over the use of the market’s macro brewers. Carlton Draught Braised Beef just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Matt Wilkinson, of Melbourne restaurant Pope Joan, hosts the Mega Dega. It’s a sold out degustation that brings together food and beer notables Joseph Abboud of Rumi, Rob Kaboord of Merricote, Darren Purchese of Burch and Purchese and more. Wilkinson knows both ends of the drinking and dining spectrum. Growing up in the pub trade of northern England, and professionally in the kitchens of Vue de Monde and Circa, he’s confident of beer’s broad appeal.
“There’ll always be a market for the beer and a parma,” he says, “but with the small brewers that are now being seen in top end restaurants there’s room for it all. With more good beer around, skilled chefs have jumped on board and brought it forward. The depth and flavour profiles in those beers give us loads of room for dishes and matching that you don’t always get with wine.”
The challenge of beer as a legitimate alternative to wine is brought to the fore by events such as the wine v beer dinner hosted at Vue de Monde. At 5 for a place at the table, the dinner with Oliver and Martin Spedding (of winery Ten Minutes By Tractor) has been described as “the perfect platform for beer and food”. Pitching beer against wine for some is futile, but choice, exploration and challenge can only be a good thing. Added to which it’s been known to turn the palate of the most ardent oenophile.
Chefs are going beyond using just beer for braising and brining. Using the beers’ own ingredients, smoking with malts, using hops as an infusion: it’s all fair game. It’s perhaps this spirit of experimentation that will ensure beer continues to be used beyond the pub classics. As Wilkinson says, “There are no boundaries – as there are with wine – and no received wisdom.”
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