Food Innovation – the Demi Degustation

My friend Bronwyn is a woman of a thousand ideas. Here is one of them.

The Demi Degustation

Degustation menus are increasingly popular with more and more restaurants. They allow the restaurant to showcase their best dishes, and for the diner,  it is an opportunity to increase their food and wine knowledge through the matching recommended by the restaurant. The downside is that degustation menus are often quite expensive and the amount of food can be overwhelming.

Enter the demi degustation (or DD). The principles of the demi degustation menu are the same but on a smaller scale. The menu would be the equivalent of a two and a half course meal spread over four smaller courses and matched with four half glasses of wine. The DD has many advantages:

• tourists would find it easy to order and to be educated about Australian food and wine
• it allows younger diners to become knowledgeable about food and wine without the social awkwardness of not knowing how to order
• diners will know at the start of the evening how much their dinner will cost and it allows diners of all budgets to experience degustation, not just the high end of the market
• wine knowledge and consumption is increased as diners get the chance to expand their experience by trying new matches such as dessert wine.

The DD is perfectly suited for food tourism areas such as the Barossa Valley. It would allow visitors to experience the best of the district. In the long term, participating restaurants could have a DD symbol on their door to alert patrons to the availability of the Demi Degustation.

If you would like to support the Demi Degustation, please talk to local restaurateurs about the idea and let us get some momentum behind this innovative idea..