Paul Hobbs Wine Pairing Dinner 7.13.17

Over the past year, we have hosted wine paring dinners with Cakebread Cellars, Argiano, and Signorello. We are extremely excited to have just hosted our most recent wine pairing dinner with Matt Hobbs, from the Paul Hobbs Winery. Oenologist Paul Hobbs, has an extensive background in producing some of the finest wines coming out of California and the development of other wine regions around the world. Paul Hobbs Wines are of the highest quality coming from California.

On July 13th, we hosted Matt Hobbs on behalf of Paul Hobbs Winery for a five-course wine pairing dinner. As Giancarlos continues to grow and develop, we have a team of three Sommeliers in training who are working to advance the wine program at both Giancarlo’s and the Grivani Wine Cellar. The dinner featured the highest rated wines Paul Hobbs had to offer.

Then came the magic from the kitchen, where our team of talented chefs created custom menu items to pair with each wine. Between our team selecting and serving the wine, and the team creating and producing the food we were able to create an experience tailored to any customer’s preference. Choosing the menu items was a vigorous team effort with much collaboration, discussion, and improving.

One day prior to the pairing, I stood back in the kitchen for over two hours to be right in all the action and discussion. It was all about trial and improving. You have to figure out which aspect of a dish you like and which aspect you want to change. There is a never ending amount of collaboration between the chefs. Throughout my time back in the kitchen, the chefs constantly had the taste of the wine being paired with the dish in mind.

The time and effort that went into an avocado toast shocked me. It took about five creations to get the perfect plated avocado toast. The avocado toast we wanted to create first had gluten free bread on the bottom, topped with mashed avocado, grilled pickled cherry tomato, feta, toasted almonds, and lemon basil vinaigrette. We could have stopped and said well that’s avocado toast after we tasted it, but we wanted it to be extraordinary. Our delicious avocado toast was paired with the Edward James Chardonnay. The kitchen staff explained to me that this dish was actually harder to play with because of the clean flavors in the avocado toast, and they wanted the natural flavors each to shine. I saw the whole start to finish process of this tasteful avocado toast. I never realized how much debate goes into each flavor and ingredient.

Moments after, I also witnessed the finished tasting of the lasagna, which will be paired with the Hyde Vineyard Pinot Noir. When comparing the sizing of plates, we debated over the circular lasagna in a square shaped bowl which hugged the lasagna, or the circular lasagna in a more circular spacious bowl. We decided on the more spacious circular bowl, which is easier to eat and enjoy. With about seven people tasting the lasagna, everyone was very pleased with the flavor. The lasagna was platted around a tomato basil sauce with a hint of crushed red pepper in the sauce. It was important to have as many people as possible testing this for more varied opinions. “Wow I love that it’s a really cool flavor!”[Anthony Ragusa]

The set up for this huge dinner started the day before the event in our Cento Club Room. Giving each reservation their own table, gave this dinner with a more personal feel. Throughout the setup we played music which felt like you were roaming the streets of Southern California. Every wine was placed, wine glass was polished, and our beautiful display was set featuring all of the wine that would be available for purchase at the end of the night. There were three servers working this event, and each server was familiar with each wine and the food it would be paired with. We are lucky that we have three Sommeliers who guided us through the proper etiquette for a wine pairing dinner. There was much practice of the timing of the evening.

During the course of the food pairing dinner, I stood back in the kitchen snapping pictures, and staying right in the action. It was very interesting for me to witness how our kitchen staff operated, as there was absolutely no down time. Our kitchen was always preparing for the next course. We had about four chefs working on this massive meal. Teamwork and communication were very important between the servers and our kitchen to know how the guests were doing and when to plate the next course. Especially with this pairing, we also needed to think of the timing when the servers would pour the wine and Matt would speak. It was a constant circle of moving and thinking ahead. The night was an absolute success. The guests loved the energy in the room, the wine tasted was absolutely delicious, and the food paired blew all of their expectations away.