Elevating Beer To Fine Dining

Creating special dining events around wine has become routine. From wine and cheese parties to tastings and educational sessions, hoteliers have leveraged the growing popularity of wine to enhance their food and beverage programs.

By Staff -- HOTELS Magazine, 5/1/2007

Creating special dining events around wine has become routine. From wine and cheese parties to tastings and educational sessions, hoteliers have leveraged the growing popularity of wine to enhance their food and beverage programs. But can the same be said for beer? Not until now, but thanks to Will Fausser, pastry chef at La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa, A RockResort, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, beer is being considered in a new light. Hailing from the U.S. Northwest where microbreweries are a way of life, Fausser has become the resort’s resident beer expert. And under his guidance, for the first time the resort is offering something a bit different this June, a special five-course dinner that pairs cuisine with ales, lambics and lagers in the resort’s Fuego restaurant. The dinner is a part of a continuing series of special culinary events offered at the hotel throughout the year.

A framboise lambic gets a a scoop of mascarpone ice cream

Formally trained as a pastry chef, Fausser says it was his background growing up in Washington State—where Seattle has some 120 microbreweries alone—that began his interest in exploring pairing beer with food. He then learned specifically abaout Belgian beers while working at the Salish Lodge & Spa in Washington State. His food and beverage director there was from Belgium and educated Fausser on the nuances of flavor in Belgian beer. “I learned it had an incredible potential to be paired with dessert,” Fausser says. “There is a complexity to Belgian beer that I think makes it much better to pair with food than any other style.”

He recommends rich, heavy abbey ales paired with heavier desserts like chocolate and items containing dried fruits. In warmer weather, for something lighter, the fruit lambic family of beers is a perfect pair with many fruit desserts. He also suggests putting a scoop of mascarpone ice cream to float in a framboise lambic from Cantillon, which he describes as “sublime.”

Baking with beer: A quince tart Tatin with Chimay Grande Reserve sorbet and hop and malt sauce

For the dinner in June, he chose a Belgian-style beer from upstate New York, which he describes as a “deep, rich beer” as the perfect accompaniment to his favorite dessert to make—a Black Forest cake. His executive chef, he says, is taking a traditional approach to cuisine by creating a Belgian theme, however, he says, it will have a modern twist. During each course, Fausser will explain why each beer pairing was chosen, as a sommelier would with wine. “We’ve done lots of winemaker dinners here, so I threw out this idea of beer pairings as a complement to those,” Fausser says. “You see beer dinners with brew pubs and bar food, but I wanted to make a beautiful fine-dining experience with something that is a rich in tradition as wine.”