8. September 2009 12:45

Bernard Lahousse about food pairing

Bernard is a bio-engineer who always combined his passion for good food with his work. He launched his own website in 2007: foodpairing.be. Here he demonstrates intelligent combinations of aromas based on chemical analysis of their main ingredients.

1. Bernard, why are you coming to BCB and what is your presentation “Food Pairing: The Fast Way to New and Surprising Cocktails” going to be about?

From the reactions we get on our website foodpairing.be, we noticed that more and more bartenders are using foodpairing to create new cocktails. During our session we will explain how foodpairing works and how you can apply it on cocktails. Advantage of foodpairing is that it opens the creativity; in one blink you see the possible combinations and some of them will be surprising.
From October on we will post new beverages, which we will then explain at BCB.

2. Is deliciousness a matter of taste or is it scientifically explainable?

Combining food is scientifically – deliciousness not. Liking is determined physiological, social/ cultural,…

3. Could you explain our readers the concept of a flavor tree?

If you go to the website, you will see for each product a foodpairing tree. The selected product is in the middle and all around you will see products you can combine with. They are clustered in category, each branch is a category like fruits, vegetables,… In each cluster you can see maximal 3 products (if we show more they start to overlap and you can’t read it anymore). In each cluster the shorter the distance of the line between the start of the cluster and the product, the better it combines.

4. Does it always work to match flavors on a scientific basis?

Indeed, but of course if I say strawberry and lobster combine, some chefs will turn it into a delicious combination, while other won’t succeed. The experience of the chef and intuition are also important to make a good dish. Same for cocktails.

5. How do you use flavor trees when you are cooking or mixing drinks?

Very easy; you start by looking at e.g. Tequila, then select rose, then litchi,… this is what we call making bridges between products. For food the best combinations are limited to 5.

Thank you for the interview!