High-End Sake Pairings: Chef Josean Alija Serves the Tough-to-Pair Artichoke with Sake

Finding a suitable wine pairing for the artichoke-based dishes created by chef Josean Alija at Nerua, the Michelin-starred restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum in Spain, challenged sommelier Ismael Alvarez—until he found a sake pairing that made sense. The newest dish at Nerua posed a particular problem, as it involved three notoriously difficult-to-pair ingredients: artichoke, olives and anchovy.

At a range of high-end restaurants around the world, sake is also being favored for serving with other hard-to-pair foods. Unlike other kinds of alcohol, sake is said to be missing some of the elements that unfavorably alter the taste of foods like aged beef, pickles or mustard. Due to its unique characteristics, sake actually has the potential to enhance a range of pungent foods like fish sauce, fermented tofu and strong cheeses.

Image Credit: LUIZ LOPEZ DE ZUBIRIA

What Makes This Trend Stand Out

Sake Pairing Trend: The trend of using sake as a pairing for challenging-to-match ingredients offers disruptive innovation opportunities in the beverage industry.
High-end Restaurant Sake Pairings: Sake being favored as a pairing for hard-to-pair foods at high-end restaurants presents disruptive innovation opportunities in the hospitality industry.
Expanding Sake Usage: The expansion of using sake to enhance the flavors of pungent foods like fish sauce, fermented tofu, and strong cheeses opens up disruptive innovation opportunities in the culinary industry.

Sectors Adopting This

Beverage Industry: The trend of using sake as a pairing for challenging-to-match ingredients offers disruptive innovation opportunities in the beverage industry.
Hospitality Industry: Sake being favored as a pairing for hard-to-pair foods at high-end restaurants presents disruptive innovation opportunities in the hospitality industry.
Culinary Industry: The expansion of using sake to enhance the flavors of pungent foods like fish sauce, fermented tofu, and strong cheeses opens up disruptive innovation opportunities in the culinary industry.