Beer With Food Week updates:
l Restaurant sommelier turned pub landlord Mark Vandergoot is more qualified than most to offer beer with food matching tips. The Australian-born licensee, who previously offered wine insight at London's Greenhouse restaurant in Mayfair, has turned his attention to hops since signing a long lease with Punch Taverns on the 35-cover gastro pub, the Greyhound in Battersea, south London. Vandergoot regards beer as a serious rival to wine as a mealtime beverage. "I think beer can be an excellent compliment to many dishes," he said. "Speciality Belgian beers make an excellent match to certain foods and provide an interesting change to wine." Vandergoot plans to recruit a Belgium master brewer to devise a beer-with-food menu to run at the pub in 2005.
l The Fox in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, plans to celebrate Beer With Food Week by encouraging customers to taste ales as they eat. Ron Blackmore, tenant at the Greene King-owned pub and a former quality manager with the Suffolk brewer, is keen to capitalise on the profit-boosting powers of the hop. He said: "There is a great opportunity to link the real British flavours of beer with some of the subtle and strong flavours of a variety of foods." The pub will run several tastings during Beer With Food Week. The pub will also match dishes to specific beers as it seeks to back the revival of British beers on the dinner table.
l Beer gastronomy can be more daring than a simple steak-and-ale pie, according to John Dickens, proprietor and head chef at the White Hart in Great Yeldham, Halstead, Essex. Dickens plans an adventurous beer cuisine evening for the local Campaign for Real Ale branch as part of Beer With Food Week, which runs from 14 to 20 March. "There's a wealth of different recipes you can use beer in," said Dickens, who has worked in Michelin-starred eateries in Switzerland and France.
