Management

WINE PAIRING 101

How to launch and manage a stellar wine pairing program // By Liz Barrett Foster

There are many reasons to create a wine pairing menu. You may want to offer a new experience, introduce guests to local or international wines or simply sell more wine.

Regardless of the reason behind starting a wine pairing program, every aspect — from menus and kitchen coordination to staff education and loss prevention — must be managed if the program is expected to be successful.

Here, three experts walk us through what’s involved in launching and managing a wine pairing program from the beginning.

PRE-LAUNCH PREP

Before considering a wine pairing, start by identifying your audience. “Will this interest them, or would they prefer to choose their own wine adventure?” asks Justin Yu, director of food and beverage at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. “Ask yourself what price point is most approachable, compared to the menu price, and how adventurous or traditional the selections should be.” Answering these types of questions can help you determine the structure of your wine pairing or whether you should offer one at all.

Second, how willing are you to do the work? “The clientele understands in the first 15 minutes if you’ve put effort into a wine pairing or not,” says Chef Brian Hay, CEC, CCE, a certified sommelier, founder of the wine consultancy Art of the Pair and department chair of culinary, pastry and hospitality at Dallas College in Texas. “If you’re just going to throw something together, it’s not going to work well.”

Finally, consider your staff’s knowledge and comfort level with introducing and serving wine. Can the staff answer guest questions about specific wines and the reasons behind the pairings? It can be a hindrance if there’s only one sommelier on staff and that person is not available every night. “You have to create a flight or pairing that you can very quickly incorporate and train your team on,” says Kat Thomas, lead sommelier at Ada’s Wine Bar in Las Vegas. “Give them all of the tools they need to go out on the floor and feel confident to do it.”

SELECTING THE WINE

Menus, guest preferences, wine availability and price point all play into wine selection and food pairings. Some restaurants match the food to the wine, while others choose to match the wine to the food.

“Pairings are all about matching and marrying flavors, so we start with a menu then identify wines that will complement it,” Yu says. “However, in some specialty cases, we do work backwards and create a menu based upon a selection of wines if we have a wine dinner featuring a certain winery or portfolio.”

“I get the wines first, and I tailor the menu around the wines — always — because I can’t change the wine,” Chef Hay says. “Whatever is in the bottle is in the bottle.”

Chef Brian Hay, CEC, CCE, is a certified sommelier who consults businesses and menu developers on pairing wine with food.

Clockwise from left: A Napa Valley Zinfandel blend pairs nicely with the Mick’s Royale with Cheese burger at Ada’s Wine Bar in Las Vegas; Kat Thomas, lead sommelier for Ada’s (credit Ada's Wine Bar); The mouthwatering lobster roll at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago is paired with a French Chablis; Justin Yu, general manager at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago.

At Ada’s, Thomas says the goal is to provide an experience for the guest. “It's an experience of traveling around the globe through different wines that you may not have chosen because you were scared to do so or you don't know how to pronounce the wine.” At the end of the day, Thomas says, you should choose wines that excite you and will excite the guest, not wines you need to move.

Keep your specific guests in mind when choosing wines for a wine pairing menu. Are your guests already wine savvy or would they enjoy being walked through a wine selection with the help of a sommelier? The customers must like the pairings. “Everything is based around the clientele,” Chef Hay says. “If you don’t make the clientele happy, then anything you do is not going to work.”

KITCHEN COLLABORATION

Chefs who work closely with sommeliers and beverage directors create and execute the best possible wine-and-food pairings, according to Yu. From creating and managing menus to organizing the timing of food and wine delivery to the dining room, the relationship between chef and sommelier is crucial to the success of a wine pairing program.

While Yu says wine can be very subjective and everyone’s palate is different, it’s fun for chefs and sommeliers to collaborate on a tasting menu. “It's important to sit around the table and taste the dish you're attempting to pair or vice versa,” he says. “Everyone discusses what they feel are the predominant flavors and what will highlight both the food and the wine.”

Pairings require a synchronized dance between the front-of-house sommelier and back-of-house chef. Guests should never receive their wine pour unless the next course is on its way out of the kitchen. “I’m the chef’s eyes on the floor,” Chef Hay says. “The chef can’t see, so I’m in constant communication, checking on ETA, pulling plates and glasses and pouring the next wine.”

PRICING FOR PROFIT

Wine pairings won’t make you rich, but they should still make sense for your bottom line. Keep all your costs in mind when creating a menu: food costs,

labor, marketing and the balance of high-end pours with valueoriented, lesser-known wines. If it costs you more than you’ll make, it may not be right for your restaurant.

“A wine pairing should be fair to the consumer from a value standpoint, but also make smart business sense when it comes to the financials,” Yu says. “All food and beverage items should be properly costed to what the business has determined for their cost of goods.”

At Ada’s, guests can expect to pay around $150 for a five-course wine dinner event. Every day at the restaurant, custom wine flights of three 3-ounce pours are available for $25 to $70. “Ada’s by the glass (price varies) and Somm Select ($35 for a flight of three wines) is very supportive of a profit,” Thomas says.

Try experimenting with different price points in the beginning to find the sweet spot. You can offer two versions of a menu — one with more affordable wines and the other with more unique or exclusive vintages. You’ll then be able to gauge which pricing structure your audience gravitates toward for future offerings.

Chef Hay says he never loses money with wine pairing menus and sees a lot of value in the marketing benefits of them. “I'm still looking at profitability; I don't want to lose money,” he says. “So, if I'm serving five wines with five courses, I've already worked the budget out to make sure I'm not losing money. But it's also marketing, because if you do a great dinner and you do a great pairing, the word of mouth is amazing. So, you'll probably sell out the next one.” The management team at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago recently introduced a caviar and sparkling wine service, complete with champagne-flavored potato chips imported from Spain, as a pop-up concept for the newly renovated lobby bar.

HANDLING THE UNEXPECTED

While rare, running out of wine or ending up with leftover wine from pairings does sometimes happen.

In the case of running out, Yu says he finds the next best alternative to the originally intended pairing and informs the guest of the situation. “It should be comparable in price, quality, style and flavor profile so that the vision of the pairing is still executed,” he says.

Too much leftover wine from a pairing is another issue altogether. There are wine preservation systems on the market that can help extend the life of wines and curb wine loss, but for the most part, leftover wine is rare if the wine pairing program is managed well.

“If we don’t go through an entire bottle, and it sits past three days, which is really unheard of, it sometimes goes into our sangria, or to staff education,” Thomas says. “Either way, the cost effectiveness is maintained.”

In the end, it’s always about the customer. Everyone likes a customized experience that feels bespoke and unique. Show customers that you’ve done your homework and can deliver on their expectations.

Caviar and wine paring at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago.

“EVERYTHING IS BASED AROUND THE CLIENTELE. IF YOU DON’T MAKE THE CLIENTELE HAPPY, THEN ANYTHING YOU DO IS NOT GOING TO WORK.”

-Chef Brian Hay, CEC, CCE

ACF RHODE ISLAND CHAPTER

// By Amelia Levin

"BIG THINGS IN LITTLE RHODY."

That’s the phrase that ACF Rhode Island Chapter (ACFRI) President Ray McCue, M.Ed., CEC, AAC, CHE, says people use to describe Rhode Island — and his chapter.

“We’re a medium-size chapter, but we’ve always been very active throughout the years,” says Chef McCue, who is currently in his second term as chapter president, was ACF’s 2015 National Educator of the Year and works as an associate professor at the College of Food Innovation & Technology at Johnson & Wales University. “All organizations have taken a hit during the pandemic, but in years past, we’ve hosted a number of ACF and other industry conferences with upwards of 500 to 600 attendees. We’re also fortunate to have some great vendors that support us.”

ACFRI’s roots date back to 1969, when a small group of professional chefs and culinary educators from the nearby, highly respected Johnson & Wales University founded the Rhode Island Professional Chefs Association. In 1974, the group joined the ACF to become ACFRI. The chapter is a bit unique compared to others throughout the country in that

Chef Ken Watt, CEC, puts the finishing touches on a menu using Gotham Greens, a Providence, Rhode Island-based produce supplier and host for one of the ACF Rhode Island chapter’s monthly meetings. it brings in chefs and students from the entire state because of Rhode Island’s small size.

The current membership of between 100 and 150 members stems from combining the Newport and Providence chapters many years ago to form a single chapter, “seeing as you can get across the state in 40 minutes,” Chef McCue says. “We are small, but such a close-knit community that’s very committed to the culinary industry. Having a premier culinary institution like Johnson & Wales right in our backyard also helps.”

The university has also been the site of many national and regional ACF events. “When I joined in 1982, our chapter hosted the ACF Convention in Providence, and my wife and I were the registration chairs,” says Chef McCue, who notes that the host chapter had record registration that year and was able to recruit many new chapter members. “We were even able to give back $10,000 to the ACF. That was one of the first of our large donations, and we hosted quite a few regional conferences after that.”

Fundraising Efforts

Philanthropy has been the key driver of ACFRI’s planning over the years. Even amid an ongoing pandemic, the chapter managed to pull off a holiday party and impromptu fundraiser in December 2021 that raised $850 for a local food bank.

“It was the first time in two years that so many people got to see each other again face to face,” Chef McCue says. “At the holiday party, we traditionally do a ‘Yankee Swap,’ where we put gifts on the table, call out numbers and people can pick up gifts and swap with others. This year, though, we felt so blessed just to be together that we wanted to pay more attention to those less fortunate, so we just literally passed around a chef’s toque in case anyone had a few dollars they wanted to contribute. Literally at the ‘tip of the hat,’ we raised $550 in cash and as a chapter threw in another $300. We donated the money to the Rhode Island Food Bank, where we have volunteered in the past.”

An ACF Rhode Island chapter meeting at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which has a culinary training program and work placement program for local community members in need. Topics discussed during that meeting included what chefs can do to tackle food hunger and improve food security. (Left to right: Chefs Andrew Schiff; Ken Desmarais; Matt Brittm, CEC; Heather Langlois; Ray McCue, CEC, AAC; Ken Watt, CEC; Mev Miller; Brandon Plemons, CEC, CEPC; Fred Faria CEC, CCE; and Uwe Werner, CEC).

The food bank supplies to more than 40 pantries in the state and has an on-site culinary and workforce training center where ACFRI chapter members have volunteered training.

There have been other fundraising events in years past, including an annual scholarship barbecue named after founding member Geno Carelli at which chapter members raise funds (upwards of $15,000 in years past) for scholarships for local high school and college students. “We also support our local Skills USA and ProStart students and have paid for them to get to the national competition.”

In October, ACFRI teamed up with its sister chapter, the Epicurean Club of Boston, for a skiing fundraiser at Wachusett Mountain that ended up bringing in $10,000 for culinary scholarships. The groups split the fund down the middle.

Chapter members volunteer in other ways, as well, including preparing meals for families staying at the local Ronald McDonald House. ACFRI Chef Ken Watt, CEC, of Hoff’s Bakery, provided the October and December’s chef dinners. Many chapter chefs also volunteer regularly with One Less Worry to cook, package up and feed healthy meals to local homeless people.

Educational Events

Education is also part of ACFRI’s mission.

In September last year, the chapter welcomed back members for the first in-person meeting in more than 18 months. Todd Snopkowski, CEO of Snapchef, discussed what the company does to help operations with labor shortages and culinary training.

At the October meeting, Scott Nicchia of Ocean State Provisions shared tips for dealing with ongoing supply chain issues and also presented a demonstration using Boar’s Head products.

The November meeting covering bacon pairings was hosted by Jones Dairy Farm and Chef Santos Nieves, a hospitality instructor at Davies Career-Tech High School, who brought many of his students to attend.

In January, ACFRI teamed up with the Epicurean Club of Boston to host an educational meeting at KeyImpact Sales & Systems, Inc., in Franklin, Massachusetts, where Chef Scott Guerin, CEC, research and development chef at

Modernist Pantry, showcased advanced techniques for working with plant-based meats and other cutting-edge ingredients.

Staying Connected

The past two years have challenged many ACF chapter presidents and board members to stay connected with their members.

Chef McCue has tried to do his best — sending out a regular newsletter always packed with words of support, contact information, resources, chapter news and happenings and even local goings-on. He stays active on the chapter’s Facebook page and keeps the chapter website (acfri.org) updated. And he’s never shied away from simply picking up the phone and calling peers.

In his most recent newsletter, Chef McCue pointed to his chapter and all ACF members as those who can help enrich the next generation of chefs and help connect them with employers who are now hiring again. “Through creativity, understanding of employee needs, and a little generosity, we can create new frameworks that lead to both loyalty and gratitude from the culinary staff — two sentiments that are often hard to come by, but once earned, lead to longterm security for all,” he wrote, ending with, “I’m always a click away at rmccue@jwu.edu.”

Top: ACF Rhode Island and the Epicurean Club of Boston have partnered for the past several years to host the annual Wachusett BBQ Fest, where all proceeds go to culinary scholarships. (Left to right: Chefs Douglas Corrigan; Ray McCue, CEC, AAC; James Connolly, CEC, CCA, AAC; Santos Nieves; John Disessa, CEC, AAC; Daniel Van Etten; Ken Watt, CEC); Bottom: Chef Joseph Leonardi, CMC, AAC (right), who has his own apiary, presented on beekeeping and honey at an ACF Rhode Island chapter meeting at Johnson & Wales University, where ACFRI Chapter President Ray McCue CEC, AAC (left), is an instructor.