All this week, we’re taking a look at 10 food trends as identified by writer John Mariani in Celebrated Living magazine.
Yesterday, we kicked off the series with the slow food movement and farm to table eating. Today, we continue with olive oils and pizza.
Mariani’s comments are in quotation marks, and our observations about each trend’s impact on wine follow.
3. Olive Oils
“Pick up any French cookbook now or watch any American cooking show…and olive oil will be the requisite fat medium.” Restaurant chefs and those who cook at home have largely replaced butter with olive oil, and this has fundamentally changed the flavor of many dishes. It also has had an impact on wine-pairing possibilities for these dishes—in some cases even changing the ideal wine from a white to a red.4. Pizza
“These days chefs are devoting as much energy and time—constructing special ovens, importing buffalo mozzarella—to pizzas as to anything else on their menus, and they don’t have to be Italian.” Many of these new creations come in single-serving sizes, and may be called flatbreads, focaccia or pizzette. These dishes allow each person in a dining party to enjoy his or her own favorite toppings. It also makes it possible—and advisable—for the restaurant to have a creative wine-by-the-glass list.Tomorrow: pork and charcuterie.
