‘Japanese’ bak kut teh paired with champagne? The result might surprise you

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'Japanese' bak kut teh paired with champagne? The result might surprise you

Challenged to pair a peppery dish with Krug's Grande Cuvee champagne, chef Kenjiro Hashida whipped up a unique take on the classic Singaporean broth.

thirty Aug 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 04 Jul 2022 xi:11PM)

Potatoes, eggs, fish and mushrooms. Humble ingredients we encounter in everyday cooking. That is until the likes of legendary champagne house Krug comes along and challenges top chefs to utilize these quotidian ingredients to create dishes worthy of pairing with its M Cuvee.

Indeed, each twelvemonth, the Business firm of Krug partners with talented chefs for a culinary exploration of a unmarried ingredient. In 2015, it was the potato; in 2016, information technology was the egg. This year, chefs Kirk Westaway of Jaan, Hatch Hashida of Hashida Sushi, and Tristan Farmer of Zen, were challenged to showcase the intricacies of pepper.

It'south no surprise that what they came upwards with were exquisite expressions of how a simple ingredient – in no more than a sprinkling, at that – can brand all the departure to high cuisine.

Westaway, whose brand celebrates Britain'due south natural bounty, went off the beaten path to notice inspiration in United mexican states. His resulting dish was a riff on his signature Langoustine's Garden wherein a host of steamed vegetables were served with mole fabricated from poblano peppers and crowned with a grilled langoustine from Mozambique.

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Hashida, influenced by Singapore's quintessential bak kut teh, created a crab and ocean eel dumpling soup with Timur pepper, whose flavour is like to but softer than its Sichuan cousins'.

Chef Kenjiro 'Hatch' Hashida. (Photo: Krug)

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Farmer parlayed espelette peppers from French republic to a sweetness care for of yubari melon sorbet with wild strawberries and nasturtium. In keeping with Zen's yen for tableside service, Krug Grande Cuvee was poured over the dessert when information technology was served.

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At their heart, these dishes take been designed to heighten the pleasure of sipping on Krug Grande Cuvee 166eme Edition. Considered the archetype of Krug champagne, each Krug Grande Cuvee takes over 20 years to craft from a blend of more than 120 wines from ten or more different years.

The combination of wines from so many dissimilar years yields a fullness of flavours and aromas that are impossible to express with wines from only a single year.

For gorging champagne drinkers, this partnership between chefs and Krug gave diners a rare opportunity to taste a spectacular bespoke pairing of food and potable.

‘Japanese’ bak kut teh paired with champagne? The result might surprise you

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