In light of the following comment by Bob Skilnik, who publishes this website: beerinfood.com and this blog: beerinfood.wordpress.com , I’ve decided to edit this post:
In response to the following passage from the beerandnothingness blog:
I was ready to punch him in the fuckin’ throat. At the very least, I thought I was destined to make a scene at the house of my long time family friends. I could see myself saying something along the lines of: “are you an absolute fucking idiot?
Bob Skilnik wrote:
When’s your 10th birthday?
It’s only beer, for Christ sake.
I actually think Bob was right about the sophmoric and juevinile phrase about punching my family friend in the throat. I was merely trying to express my frustration at a beer loving chef’s innability to see beer as a viable participant at the dinner table. And I missed the mark. I’ve edited the post in response.
But I do disagree with Bob on the only other thing he said. “It’s only beer, for Christ sake.” I stand by my tendency in all my posts to take beer seriously. I don’t think I even need to justify myself here. Obviously, I’d never hurt anyone over beer, but I do think it’s an extremely important part of many people’s lives (particularly those who derive their lively hood from it).
In the end, what I’m most confused about is the fact that Bob has written at least 2 books about beer, written articles about beer, been interviewed about beer countless times, yet still can say something like “It’s only beer, for Christ sake.” (I’m assuming he picked up on the fact that I didn’t really want to punch my friend in the throat, call him an idiot, and then box his ears, but rather was making a point about my frustration (rather unsuccessfully, as I’ve already admitted to above)). I’m assuming he meant that I should get over my frustration that a majority of the professional culinary world doesn’t want to see beer paired with good food on any sort of regular basis. That’s probably not going to happen regardless of what Bob says.
So here it is, the updated post. The edited part makes up the enirety of the second paragraph. And i know “it’s just beer, for Christ sake,” but i did feel like boxing his ears, so I left that part in.
A couple of years ago I was back in the town I grew up in, visiting with some old family friends. We were drinking. Heavily. Mostly beer. And mostly good beer. They were well aware that I worked at craft brewery and in fact, actually liked good beer themselves, so they made sure their fridge was full of local craft beer. There was a bunch of beer from the Great Lakes Brewing Company, a brewery that’s been making great beer in the Midwest for years. One the sons of this family had graduated from culinary school a year ago, and was now working as a chef. He seemed to be the most passionate about the beers we were drinking, even commenting on flavor profiles and aromas. This was exciting for me. Here was a trained chef who truly appreciated quality beer. It seemed that he even took it seriously. In other words, he didn’t just drink beer because it was his preferred method of inebriation. It seemed as though he drank craft beer because he appreciated the work and attention that went into making that beer. It appeared as though he found depth and beauty in the aromas and flavors that can be found in well made beer. For all I know, maybe he did. But I stopped paying attention to him shortly thereafter. What could possibly cause this change of attitude in me? I’ll tell you what. I asked him if he ever thought about doing beer dinners at the restaurant he was currently working at, and he actually laughed at the suggestion. His reply was something along the lines of “no, no. I like beer. But good food should be paired with wine.”
I was upset. I thought I was destined to make a scene at the house of my long time family friends. I could see myself saying something along the lines of: “Seriously? How, after tasting all the beer that you have, could you totally disregard the possibility of beer complimenting good food, or more importantly, good food complementing good beer”? After I quelled my desire to box his ears, I replied with a casual “Well, to each their own.” I couldn’t cause a scene here. Plus, I knew this guy, and i knew he wouldn’t last long in any particular career. He wouldn’t be around long enough to spread his nonsensical disregard for the wonderful marriage of food and beer.
One of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that alot of people who are really into food (aka foodies and chefs), do not take beer seriously. It’s not that they won’t drink it, or they don’t appreciate it, but many of them would never think about pairing it with their favorite meal. They’ve acquired and come to embrace an archaic and naive culinary ideology which prevents them from even considering beer as a pairing option with anything other than buffalo wings and burgers. In my opinion, it’s purely ideological.
I can only hope that eventually, someone influential in the culinary world will realize how versitile and compatible beer is when it comes to pairing it with food.
I was ready to punch him in the fuckin’ throat. At the very least, I thought I was destined to make a scene at the house of my long time family friends. I could see myself saying something along the lines of: “are you an absolute fucking idiot?
When’s your 10th birthday?
It’s only beer, for Christ sake.