Brew Ha Ha The blatantly retro Red Restaurant and Lounge has always championed distinctive beers such as Chimay Cinq Cents and Boont Black IPA. And if all goes well next month, it will have its own cicerone, or certified beer expert. UCSC graduate Miriam Victor already has almost three years of learning the food and beverage biz at Red under her belt. “Artfully crafted beer is a big movement,” she notes, handing me a snifter of deep chocolate-hued India Pale Ale (yes, IPAs can be dark) loaded with toastiness and creamy depths.
Victor has helped to create some of the famous beer and food dinners at Red’s sister restaurant, 515, in an effort “to spread the word that beer is not only a sophisticated drink, but that it goes very well with food,” she explains. Victor started checking out the making of the world’s oldest beverage several years ago at Uncommon Brewers. And after arduous on-the-job training at Red, she is ready for the next step —to take a special exam next month in San Francisco to become a certified cicerone, the equivalent of a sommelier in the beer world.
So what does it take to be certified? “There’s a three-hour written exam,” she begins, showing me her notebook bulging with details about techniques, origins and qualities of the world’s bewildering array of beers. Then Victor and other candidates will undergo blind tastings in which they will have to identify whether there are flaws in a given brew and if so, what kind and how they occur. They’ll have to identify styles such as pilsner, lager, porter, stout or ale. Finally, there’s a 15-minute oral exam about proper serving techniques.
When she completes the rigorous test, Miriam Victor will hold a rare honor in “a movement dominated by men.” She hopes one day to become a certified Master Cicerone. Stop by Red and wish her luck!
Top Plates We’re mad for the gorgeously intricate side veggie at La Posta involving some unlikely bedfellows. Cauliflower is a much-maligned vegetable whose pungent aroma is often difficult to overlook. But in the hands of chef Katherine Stern it reaches epic heights, its inherent bitterness tamed by a brilliantly balanced sauce of raisins and capers (the sweet and the salty), the buttery crunch of pine nuts and that most Italian of all top notes, fresh parsley. This is a contorno to change your childhood resistance to cauliflower.
Send tips about food, wine and new dining discoveries to Christina Waters at xtina@cruzio.com. Read her blog at http://christinawaters.com.
