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What to pair with…a portion of fries

Courtesy of New York City’s chicest cocktail bars, Martinis and fries have taken off as the ‘it’ food and drink combo around the world. But the universally-loved French fry has a number of other perfect pairings. Eloise Feilden asks the experts what you should be drinking if you have a penchant for chips.

What to pair with...a portion of fries

New York City cocktail bars are the ones to thank for the viral Martinis and fries pairing, dubbed the ‘New York Happy Meal’. The combination has become so popular that there is even an Instagram account entirely dedicated to the duo.

And the big NYC trend is creeping its way onto menus across the globe.

London’s Covent Garden Hotel has just launched its new Martini Hour (5-6pm daily), offering £14 Martinis which come with complimentary seasonal fries.

Flavio Carvalho, the hotel’s bar manager, says the pairing is a no brainer. “A dry Martini is one of the most consumed cocktails around the globe. Now add fries into the mix – one of the world’s most loved snacks – and you have a foolproof combination,” he says.

Brasserie Max, the hotel’s cocktail bar, is a “fairly classic cocktail and Martini bar”, Carvalho says, but “we do like to follow the odd trend and make sure we’re serving what our guests are asking for, and what is in demand”. Carvalho and his team love to throw a twist on the menu, and alongside the classic the bar is offering eight different riffs on a Martini.

What to pair with...a portion of fries
Covent Garden Hotel serves up the perfect Martinis and fries combo

So what makes the combo such a perfect match? The secret behind the New York Happy Meal is that it is both “sophisticated and simple”, Carvalho says. When it comes to flavour and texture, the saltiness and crispiness of the chips balances perfectly with the dry, crisp finish of a Martini, he explains, making them the ultimate duo.

Martinis may be the current ‘it’ pairing with a portion of fries, but if cocktails aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other drinks to choose from. Eloise Feilden asks experts across the drinks industry what they would pair with a bowl of chips.

Sake

Erika Haigh is a sake educator and international kikisake-shi sommelier (SSI), making her an authority on all things Japanese rice wine.

Riffing on the New York Happy Meal, Haigh’s perfect pairing is a dry sake.

“I always say dryness plus saltiness is a match made in heaven,” she says. “In the same vein as the Martini, I think a dry sake with minerality and cereal tones would pair beautifully with the saltiness and oiliness of fries.”

Haigh is the founder of Mai, a boutique Japanese sake merchant and co-owns Moto, the UK’s first independent Japanese sake bar.

Tapping into her own supply of sake, she says the Ultra Dry Junmai sake from Yonetsuru Brewery in Yamagata Prefecture would be her ultimate go-to, served chilled in a wine glass.

Haigh explains: “Its crisp, clean profile would balance the richness of the fries while enhancing their savoury notes.”

Of course, the cut of chips makes a difference, but Haigh says the Ultra Dry Junmai is a reliable choice “across the board” whether it be paired with “McDonald’s fries, cheesy chips or thick-cut potato wedges”.

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Wine

While Martinis provide the perfect New York-style pairing for a portion of chips, Giuseppe D’Aniello, head sommelier at Edition Hotels, has the dream combo for the Francophile among us.

“I would personally goes with some bubbles,” he says, arguing that the acidity of Champagne is the best fit for chips.

What to pair with...a portion of fries

Indeed, what could be more perfect than French fries and French Champagne?

More specifically, D’Aniello recommends GH Mumm Champagne’s RSRV Cuvée 4.5, a unique blend of five of Maison Mumm’s Grand Cru terroirs, as the ideal expression “to cut through the oily sensation of the fries”.

Beer

Picture this: it’s a Sunday afternoon and you’re sitting, surrounded by friends, in the pub down the road from your house, sheltering from the drizzle outside. The landlady approaches, carrying with her a bowl of freshly cooked, thick-cut chips. But as she sets them down in front of you, the smell of their salty goodness wafting into your nostrils, what’s in your pint glass?

According to Jane Peyton, accredited beer sommelier and founder of the School of Booze, the answer comes down to a science.

Her recommendation is any light brown beer, whether it be a Vienna Lager, a Bitter, a Märzenbier or Brown Ale. These beers are cutting, Peyton says, meaning “the hops cut through the fat and texture of the fries”.

What to pair with...a portion of fries

But the reason this duo works so perfectly together lies in their chemical make-up. To get technical about it, Peyton explains that “they are also complementary in that both the fries and the beer’s coloured malts go through a chemical process called the Maillard Reaction. This happens when sugars and amino acids are heated together resulting in nutty, savoury, caramel flavours.”

“Who hasn’t longed for chips on the way home from a beer drinking session at the pub,” she asks — and understanding their scientific similarities goes some way towards explaining why.

Next big thing

The Martinis and fries pairing has captured the imaginations of bartenders and operators the world over, with bars in cities including Amsterdam and Toronto joining in.

So what will be the next pairing sensation to go global?

According to Covent Garden Hotel’s Carvalho, the next ‘it’ combination is going to be on the sweeter side. “If I had to guess,” he says, “I’d lean towards an Espresso Martini paired with a bowl of ice cream”. As we come to the end of January and look towards the warmer months, Carvalho believes this pairing will work especially well “during the long summer nights”.

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