Champagne Gosset launches Gosset Matchmakers 2021 competition
Champagne Gosset has launched its Gosset Matchmakers 2021 competition.
Now in its sixth year, the competition focuses on wine knowledge, its relationship with food and the importance of interaction between the sommelier and the chef, offering the teams an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and how they work together to execute a dish, which, when matched with Gosset Champagne, brings out the best of the best in both the food and the wine.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, each team submitted a short video presenting their dish and champagne pairing to a panel of judges for the first round of the competition. The next stage will see the five finalists battle it out for an enviable prize: an all-expenses paid trip for the winners to France, when they make and present their dish with Gosset Champagne to the panel of judges at Cord, Le Cordon Bleu’s restaurant on Fleet Street in London on 14th September. The day will culminate in a challenge as the participants will be given a Gosset champagne and a selection of ingredients to create a second pairing, without any previous preparation.
All stages of the competition will be judged by experts in the food and drinks industry including Matthieu Longuere MS, Sally Abé, Louise Gordon of Heckfield Place and Svetoslav Manolev MS of 67 Pall Mall, Will Oatley from Louis Latour Agencies (distributor of Gosset Champagne) as well as the CEO and owner of Gosset Champagne, Jean-Pierre Cointreau.
“Good sommeliers should be passionate and knowledgeable about food and wine to understand the relationship between both,” explains Master Sommelier, Matthieu Longuere, Wine Development Manager at Le Cordon Bleu London in charge of the judging team. “To achieve this, they should work together with the chef, and they should both try to taste as many combinations as possible. Eventually, this will help the sommelier fully explain the interaction between a particular wine and dish and allow the chef to tweak the recipe to highlight specific flavours and prevent clashes. Their goal is to enhance the customer dining experience. This competition will allow chef and sommelier team to showcase these skills, when creating that perfect match with Gosset Champagne”.
Sally Abé, consultant chef at the Conrad Hotel in London and in charge of the food and drinks offering at four different establishments, will be looking out for creativity in the dish and attention to detail: “I like the idea of inspiring people to cook, but also that they give careful thought to the wine they choose to drink, as it can make a real difference to the enjoyment of the dish.”
As part of the grand prize trip to France, the overall winning team will visit Champagne Gosset to take part in an exclusive blending workshop with Gosset’s cellar master Odilon de Varine. They will also be awarded the title of Gosset Matchmaker 2021 as they join the ever-growing list of competition alumni.
