Which food goes best with fine champagne? The humble radish, says French researcher who spent 50 years matching foods with wines
- Champagne makers talk about how to drink their sparkling wine, from the correct glass to the best food with which to accompany it
- The champagne flute is definitely out of style, and the humble radish is the best food match says a wine expert and chemist after a half-century of experiments
Forget beluga caviar, foie gras, smoked salmon or ortolan, the tiny bird that French gourmets put a napkin over their heads to eat so they can savour every last second of their unique aroma.
No, the food that goes best with the finest champagne is the humble radish. The discovery was made by the celebrated French chemist and wine expert Jacques Puisais, now 93, who has spent the last half-century researching which food goes best with different wines.
Didier Depond, the head of the Delamotte champagne house, is so convinced of the validity of Puisais’ science he has become an evangelist for the root vegetable.
But that is not all.
“I grow my own radishes in my garden so I can eat them when I am drinking my champagne,” he said. “They have all the virtues. They cost nothing and they don’t make you fat.”
