Scribe winery levi dalton11/11/2023 ![]() You're really looking almost every time for a bridge between the different flavors on the table, for wines that can do a lot of different things. There's a lot of emphasis on sharing and on small plates. LD: We don't have so many set tasting menus. WS: What about pairings at a more casual restaurant, like Boulud Sud? That has to be the most complex, the most deep. So you start with the last wine and then you think about how you're going to get there, because that has to be the finale. You have to start with where you're going to go and then work back. You almost have to do a pairing menu backwards. ![]() Even though it's a classic pairing, he felt that you can't think of each course by itself. I did a pairing menu for him and I put a Sauternes in with the foie gras and he really wasn't happy about it. LD: The progression of flavors was really drilled into me by Daniel early in my career. WS: When pairing food and wine, is there anything you focus on in particular? LD: Gravner, Radikon, Vodopivec, Paolo Bea and Dettori. WS: What are some of your favorite orange wines? With orange wines, things like uni or shiitake mushrooms, those kind of umami foods, have a way of really picking it up. ![]() There are certain foods that you can have with fino Sherry that really bring it out. They also have pairings that make them sing. Orange wines can be a very valuable pairing tool. Then I would move back to a full-bodied red to finish with the last meat course. LD: I would use orange wines to pair with the fish because even though they have white wine characteristics, with acidity, they also have that depth of concentration that you associate with the tannins of the skins of the grape that we find in orange wines and in red wines. And then what do you do with the fish? It was a conundrum. ![]() You would do a white with the antipasti, and a heavier white with the seafood pasta, and then your inclination is to do a lighter red, a Dolcetto or a Rossese, with the meat pasta. You were faced with a problem conceptually as to how you were supposed to that. LD: would always set up a tasting menu that went antipasti, seafood pasta, meat pasta and then fish and meat. There's just not the sense that you're supposed to pair the two flavors together. Between each bite of fish, they're clearing the register of the palate with beer to start anew. They use the beer how we would use a sorbetto palate-cleanser in a long tasting menu. What they're doing with sake and with beer, mostly with beer, is that they're not looking at it as a pairing. LD: Working at Masa exploded the whole idea for me of wine pairings, because they actually don't look at it that way. WS: What was it like to work with Japanese cuisine at Masa? There's a lot of depth of wine experience there, and so you're really around people all the time who can just offhandedly tell you things that are really important to how you think about wine. One of the things about Daniel's organization, and this is true today, is that it's a really amazing team of wine people. It was incredible getting to work with that culture. Levi Dalton: It wasn't my first restaurant job, but I worked for Daniel Boulud several years ago and it really set the basis for what my view of fine dining is. Wine Spectator: How did you get started working as a sommelier? Dalton recently spoke with Wine Spectator about how his experience with Japanese, French, Italian and Mediterranean cuisines shaped his palate and informed his unique approach to pairings. With those restaurants' closing last year, Dalton has returned to the Boulud restaurant group, and is currently assigned at Boulud Sud, near Lincoln Center. Later, Dalton moved to Palm Beach, Fla., to explore French and Mediterranean cuisine at Daniel Boulud's outpost there before heading to New York, where he served as beverage director at Masa Takayama's namesake sushi restaurant.įollowing a trip to Japan, Dalton began a three-year run as wine director at Michael White's Convivio and Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning Alto in New York, where his focus shifted to wines from southern and northern Italy. ![]() His first break came in college when he began as a waiter and then sommelier at the Federalist in Boston. Levi Dalton, 35, always knew that he was headed for a career in fine dining: With both parents in the restaurant business, he never imagined himself doing anything else. ![]()
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