Cooking With Beer
Over many centuries the Belgians have evolved a varied complex, unique and idiosyncratic beer culture. They give beer the respect that most nations reserve for wine. The Belgians also have the world's most elegant, elaborated and subtle beer cuisine.
Belgian beers not only compliment classic Belgian dishes. They are worldly and suited to world cuisines. In the Middle Ages, the land that is now Belgium was the center of the spice trade for Northern Europe. Brewers began incorporating rare spices and fruits (coriander, ginger, caraway, curacao orange peel, star anise, paradise grain, and aromatic peppers) in their beers. These subtle spicings mean that the beers marry well with global cuisines.
What's more, people who know wine well will readily acknowledge that beers harmonize better with dishes that feature fresh/sour and full bodied/sweet flavors. The simple reason is that sweetness calls forth the unfermented "grapey" quality in wine, while sourness brings forward any oxidized qualities in wine.
So try Castelain with spicy Asian dishes, Saison Dupont with barbecued ribs, Witkap with briny seafoods finished with vinegar, or Scaldis with game with orchard fruits and you'll see for yourself what a great marriage they make.
This recipe section contains more than a hundred dishes that are prepared with beer, and/or that are classically Belgian. Vanberg & DeWulf’s co founder, Wendy Littlefield and Belgian chef, Ruth Van Waerebeek have collaborated on a cooking with Belgian beer cookbook that will one of these days see the light of day. Until such time, this compendium is a good starting place for your explorations of cuisine a la biere..
One last note: Over the course of the last couple of decades we have participated in hundreds of beer dinners featuring Vanberg & DeWulf beers. We are sharing the menus from a small cross section of these events. We are proud to have worked with chefs, restaurateurs and sommeliers like Rick Moonen, Charles Phan, Leslie Revsin, Ruth Van Waerebeek, Tim Schaeffer, Geert Piferoen, David Ruggerio, Scott Cohen, Greg Higgins, Steven Raichlin, Emeril Lagasse, Stephen Fochs, Romy Dorotan, Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent, Andrea Immer-Robinson, Steve Olson, Paul Pacult, Doug Frost and Larry Stone.
All of us can well remember a time when beer was banished from the tables of fine dining establishments. Because of the imagination, proper irreverence, skill and savvy proselytizing of people like them - the food scene has been immeasurably enriched in the USA. Beer has once again assumed a rightful place at the table of many of America's greatest restaurants - of all stripes from the simplest local joints to the most exalted boites.
You will find the menus in the Beer and Food Professional Section. Bon Appetit!
Wendy Littlefield and Don Feinberg
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DISCOVER BELGIUM
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DON & WENDY'S LIBRARY
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OUR IMPORTS
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RECIPE SECTION
More than 100 recipes and lots of links
