Kent TV chef to host gourmet wine tasting event

The Ambrette to host gourmet wine tasting events

Six-course tasting menu with matched wines for £49.99

Local chef to feature on BBC Food Programme and Channel Four TV

The renowned Ambrette Restaurant in Margate has announced the retrun
of its popular gourmet wine tasting evenings, in conjunction with the
Cranbrook-based wine and cheese merchants, Perfect Partners.

Wine and food connoisseurs have three dates to chose from, all
Sundays:  27th January, 12th May and Sunday 8th September 2013,
beginning at 7pm.

Acclaimed chef patron Dev Biswal will be serving a 6-course tasting
menu with matched wines chosen by Perfect Partners co-owner Richard
Clarke at £49.99.

“The quality of most wines worldwide has improved hugely, but they
still demand rigorous selection - some of the traditional wine regions
disappoint, but the new areas astound at great value,” said Richard
Clarke, co owner of Perfect Partners, adding, “Our philosophy is to
find quality wines, irrespective of label or country, that represent
good examples of their grape variety and provenance at a fair price.”

The Ambrette is hoping to dispel the myth that you cannot drink wine
with Indian food and that beer is the preferred accompaniment.
Matching the right wine with the right flavours is simply a matter of
chemistry.

“The reason why wines do not pair well with a curry from your local
take-away is because most of these curries are highly flavoured with
cooked onion and garlic containing sulphur compounds such as allicin,
diallyl disulphide and diallyl trisulphide,” explained Biswal, adding,
“These clash harshly with the taste molecules present in most wines.”

Dev Biswal will feature on BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme on Sunday 3rd
February.  The programme, which will be repeated on Monday 4th at
3.30pm February and also available on BBC iPlayer), reporting on how
many senior citizens in Thanet are eschewing traditional Sunday
roasts, in favour of fine Indian ding, taking advantage of The
Ambrette’s Senior Privilege Card, entitling them to 2-for1 lunchtime
dining.

Dev will also be seen giving money saving tips on two series of
Channel 4 TV’s ‘Supercrimpers Challenge’ being broadcast in February
and March.
In one of the programmes Dev shows a pensioner how to prepare a
gourmet 3- course meal for six people for less than £20.  The starter
is a nutritious nettle soup, foraged from her garden.

Editor’s Notes:

Dev Biswal grew up in Calcutta.  He trained at the Dubai Sheraton,
before moving to London, aged 26 in 2003 for spells at Mangoes and
Eriki.   He became a partner in The Indian Princess in Margate in
December 2006, becoming patron and rebranding it as The Ambrette in
2010.

Perfect Partners: Richard Clarke, studied Mechanical Engineering at
Cambridge University, but was enticed into the food and wine trade
with Jacksons of Piccadilly in 1972 as buyer of French cheeses, then
wines, because of his rudimentary French gained from having spent a
month working on a farm in Normandy. At Jacksons, Clarke was mentored
by their wine consultant Harry Waugh, one of the first Masters of Wine
and director of Chateau Latour, one of the great wines of Bordeaux.

In 1975 he moved to a small shipper/wine merchant who supplied the
Hilton Hotels, The Ritz and Cunard Group owners of the QE2.  The
company was amalgamated in 1979 with a specialist in the duty free
market supplying alrlines and ships. For the next 10 years Clarke
advised Cunard, P&O, Sealink, British Caledonian Airways and many
other airlines

In 1988, Richard and his wife Rosemary I bought Perfect Partners,
Cheese & Wine Merchants of Cranbrook.  Richard Clarke has witnessed a
total revolution in the UK wine market.  In the 1970s the only serious
wines that were generally available here were French and German.
Italian restaurants mainly offered a very basic range of indifferent
wines.  Spain, apart from Rioja and Sherry, provided bulk wines with
little character.


Perfect Partners, Stone Street, Cranbrook, Kent TN17 3HF T: 01580 712633