How to Unmarry Wine and Food

If you like to cook, if you’re a foodie or gourmand, if you like to go to restaurants and enjoy chef’s tasting menus, you’ve noticed that food and wine are continually paired up in these worlds. Everything is a wine-tasting event. There’s even a Food & Wine magazine. If you love foodie culture, how do you continue to take part without drinking? What do you do? Are there non-alcoholic pairing menus out there?

do wine & food belong together?

I started cooking young—when I was around 11 and 12. I was obsessed. I got all the magazines, I loved cookbooks, and the best birthday gift I could get was going to a chef tasting menu at a really great restaurant. I even planned trips around food. I was a total foodie, and I still am.

Uncoupling wine from fine dining is quite the challenge in our society but, as our society embraces new wellness trends, healthy lifestyles, and alcohol-free living, I believe we’re going to open up new spaces in the gourmand world. These spaces will make room for non-alcoholic options and, over time, unmarry food and wine.

A while ago, I listened to a podcast episode with the editor of Food & Wine Magazine and an alcohol-free life coach like me. The editor said she couldn’t imagine going to Italy without drinking wine in the vineyards. Then the alcohol-free life coach basically said, “How crazy is that!?” There are so many things to do in Italy that have nothing to do with wine. There is so much fun and excitement to be had—so many new tactile experiences and new things to try. There are millions and millions of things to do in this world, and alcohol only plays a part in a very small percentage of them.

It’s crazy that the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Italy is drinking wine. It’s crazy that we people go to Florence just to drink wine. It’s crazy that the only reason we might visit Munich is to take part in Oktoberfest. These cultural experiences tell us food and alcohol are so intertwined. How do we start decoupling them?

Decoupling Food and Wine

Going alcohol-free doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying the food world. It is possible to be a gourmand and be alcohol-free!

First, get the facts straight. Alcohol numbs and desensitizes your taste buds, so the idea that alcohol helps bring out the flavors of food and helps you enjoy your food more is a little bit of a myth. Yes, some unique notes that can be brought out by different tannins of alcohol but at the same time, you're numbing your taste buds.

I live in San Diego and just about 90 minutes from where I live, I can drive to this beautiful wine valley near Ensenada, Mexico. It was one of my favorite things to do for my birthday. Every single year that I was there for my birthday, my husband and I would go to wine-tastings all day. That’s it. Wine tasting all day left me super tired and generally not feeling great. By the time that we usually had a reservation for dinner at a restaurant at 7 p.m., I never really enjoyed the experience.

In October of last year, I went back to the for the first time as a non-drinker and I had the best time I've ever had. I brought non-alcoholic wine. I went with friends and our husbands and partners, we went back to one of my favorite restaurants, and I enjoyed it so much more. It was a real eye-opener for me. I realized that not only can you enjoy your food more without drinking, but also you can go to these locations around the world lauded for their food and wine and still have a really great time. Decoupling the idea that wine improves the flavor of food or somehow needs to compliment the flavor of food is key.

The Food World is Catching Up

Believe it or not, the food world is catching up. There are a bunch of famous, forward-thinking restaurants that have non-alcoholic pairings drink pairings to go with their chef tasting menu.

For example, Ludo Lefebvre is a famous French chef with restaurants in LA. His restaurant Trois Mec has a total non-alcoholic drink pairing menu. World-famous restaurants, like Trois Mec, Noma in Denmark, and many of the other top 50 restaurants in the world have a non-alcoholic drink pairing menu. Why? The best chefs are always looking to innovate. The best chefs are always experimenting with new flavors and new ways flavors can mix together, so it's no wonder that a lot of the most forward-thinking chefs are actually starting to incorporate non-alcoholic drink pairings in their menu.

Chefs are experimenting with different flavors, like shrubs, kombucha, and teas. For example, teas are really great because teas have a lot of their own tannins—and acidity and bitterness to them that can actually cut through a lot of different things. You can easily make a complex mixed drink or mocktail using tea.

Then there are mocktails everywhere. Mocktails are becoming a new thing on most restaurant menus, especially in big cities, and they’re so inventive and fun. It’s all about flavor. It’s all about creativity. The drink part doesn't have to be alcoholic for it to enhance food and to make you feel fancy and special and pampered.

I believe this movement is just going to keep blowing up. There will be more non-alcoholic drink pairings, more options, and more like creativity and inventiveness there. Maybe in 2025, the Food and Wine Festival will have like 20% non alcoholic drink pairings. Maybe they already do. Who knows? That’s where we’re headed. I truly believe that in my heart.

We all know what it feels like to drink all night and eat food. Even at fancy restaurants, we feel tired and bloated and gross. We're kind of embarrassed the next day. We don't really feel well. We all know how that story ends. We've lived it too many times.

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