The Big Smoke

Lunch in the Dorchester ’s Krug Room, right in the middle of the hotel’s vast kitchens, is always unusual; that glass wall is both permissive and preventive. The chefs know you’re there, of course, but they can’t hear you and don’t have to look at you, and it certainly feels as though they’ve forgotten there are pagans present. It’s a fly-on-the-foie gras experience, which adds spice to food that really doesn’t require seasoning.

The oddest thing about my lunch there recently, though, was the nationality of the three chefs – Henry Brosi from the Dorchester, Uwe Opocensky from Hong Kong’s Mandarin Oriental and Tim Raue from Ma in Berlin. They’re all German. What happened to French hegemony in the world’s posher hotel kitchens?

This trio might come from a land famous for sausage and sauerkraut but there’s no stodge here: the chefs are teaching us what to eat with Krug champagne – not a beverage to match with bratwurst. Henry gives us braised turbot with Krug 1998, which turns out to be inspired; Uwe talks earnestly about the ‘meatiness, creaminess and richiness (sic)’ that work best with champagne before serving the most extraordinary dish I’ve ever seen: an edible shell, lentils sprayed shiny silver to resemble pebbles on a beach, and sea bass that is creamy and richy enough for the Krug – and then some.

Why conduct these experiments, apart from the pleasure of a spectacular lunch? Because champagne companies, aware perhaps that we have had less than usual to celebrate of late, are keen to demonstrate that the world’s best marketed wine (we associate it with celebrating. How clever is that?) can accompany food, too. And they are right, but it needs to be carefully done – partly because the wine is expensive, and partly because bubbles are a complicating factor: they confuse the tastebuds (or they do mine, anyway). It’s a great game, though, and you can play too, for a price, because Henry Brosi is starting masterclasses in the Dorchester’s Krug room where he will teach students about the ingredients and which wines do and don’t work with them, before suiting the action to the word with a three-course lunch, each dish matched with an appropriate glass of Krug. £150 for lunch, even a sensational lunch, is not to be spent lightly, of course. But if you’re interested in what to eat with your bubbly, then this is probably a good, not to say good-looking, place to start.

How experimental will the lunches, each themed, be? Well, Henry may not introduce sea urchin (which, for the record, did go extremely well with Krug Clos de Mesnil 1998) although the point – that bitterness works with blancs de blancs (ie champagne made from  100% chardonnay, like Krug Clos de Mesnil 1998) – remains valid. He and Tim both pick raspberries as an ideal match with Krug rosé for dessert - Tim with Pondicherry pepper, Henry with Acacia honey brûlée (‘the sweetest honey!’ he maintains enthusiastically). Rosé is the youngest Krug wine and almost didn’t make it out of the cellar at all: Henri Krug, who was in charge when it launched in the 1970s, was convinced that rosé was only good for girly bars. That’s why experimenting with food and wine is such fun: even the experts can sometimes get it wrong.

The next masterclass, on black Perigord truffles, takes place on Feb 20 2010. For reservations and enquiries call Bronwyn Breese on 0207 319 7311 or email bbreese@thedorchester.com.