Next week the Jamaica Observer celebrates Salut! Dine In. This will be the second week of three glorious weeks of exciting dining options titled Fast, Fun & Tasty; Dine In and Wine and Champagne. The launch event held at the Jamaica Observer headquarters recently was very well supported by a number of Jamaica’s leading culinary professionals who operate catering companies. I had the rare opportunity to see four of these chefs in action on one night at a very interesting private Dine Around Dinner held recently by a number of business executives.

Dine Around Remixed!

The concept was very close to that of a progressive dinner, but with a little twist. In a typical progressive dinner the guests for the dinner all meet at one house for appetisers, the entire party will then progress to the next house for the next course and this goes on from house to house until the meal has ended. With this particular dinner, guests met at a central location and they were all given instructions on where they were to have dinner and then where to have dessert. So think about it; about 40 persons criss-crossing town to attend one of the four dinner locations (each host had 10 guests). After dinner they all get back in their cars and criss-cross town again to go to their dessert locations dining with a different set of guests; so the person with whom you sat beside at dinner might not be the same person that you have dessert with. After dinner, entertainment was at a central location.

Guests got an opportunity to enjoy a wide range of wines for the night that were selected to accompany the dishes from the four caterers.

Which wines with dinner?

Wine and food were meant to be. However, there always seems to be a challenge. The first rule of wine and food pairing is that there are NO rules, drink what you like with what you like to eat. However, there are a few guidelines that will make the experience much more enjoyable. Food almost always changes the taste of wine, so make a decision on the wine based on what you are eating. Jamaican food tends to be ‘spicy’ or ‘peppery’, so do you want to complement this flavour or contrast it? Try a big, powerful red wine like a Cabernet Sauvignon from California or Chile with your pepper shrimp or jerk chicken and most persons might NOT like it as the tannins in the full body red wine will ‘stoke’ the fire in the food. Try a slightly sweet Riesling from Germany or Alsace, France with the same food and experience that explosion of flavour that the contrast of components will cause in your mouth.

Check out the list of participating caterers and host your own Dine In events next week.

This is a really fun way of hosting a dinner party with friends, so do try it!

Chris Reckord – Entrepreneur & Wine Enthusiast. He and his wife Kerri-Anne are part owners of Jamaica’s only Wine Bar – Bin 26 Wine Bar in Devon House, Kingston. Send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com.

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