Designed to showcase the skill of the Chef and the kitchen, the degustation menu is as much about showmanship and spectacle as it is about the creativity of the Chef and the quality of the food. It’s a chance for the Chef to take a few risks, knowing his diners want to be inspired and will (usually) go happily out onto the edge with him; part of the fun of a degustation is eating food you wouldn’t normally eat, and of being challenged in your perception of how certain dishes should look, feel and taste.
Each course of a degustation menu is designed to fit with harmony into an overall experience centred around a particular theme, whether it be produce, region, cuisine or wine. At it’s simplest, a degustation is a chance, for a brief moment in our busy lives, to really focus on the food and wine.
I thought about this last Thursday night when I attended Bistro Dom’s Wild Degustation dinner, which saw Duncan Welgemoed from Bistro Dom teaming up with Quang Nguyen from Devour Dessert Bar and Sam Hughes, Anton Von Klopper, James Erskine and Tom Shobbrook from Natural Selection Theory.
