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Champagne Gosset Matchmakers 2022 Winners Announced
07 October 2022Champagne Gosset Matchmakers 2022 Winners Announced
21st September 2022 at Le Cordon Bleu’s Cord Restaurant – Gosset Matchmakers Final
The winning duo of Gosset Matchmakers 2022 came from Alain Ducasse, at the Dorchester, London. The chef and sommelier team of Julien Deschamps and Sotir Semini had to battle it out in London’s Cord Restaurant, located in Fleet Street, alongside finalists from Chewton Glen, Hampshire and Spry, Edinburgh.
Their outstanding dish of Langoustine and champagne emulsion with a marmalade of peach and pink peppercorn, carefully designed to pair beautifully with Gosset Grande Reserve, won the judges over.
Chair of the panel, Melody Wong said, “It was a fierce competition this year, with all the finalists delivering on quality cooking, service skills, creativity and above all outstanding teamwork. It was hard to choose a winner.”
Judge Laetizia Keating, then challenged the teams to create a dish from a box of mystery ingredients, which included pork loin, to match with the new Gosset Celebris Blanc de Blancs 2012.
Melody was pleased to see their creativity. She said, ‘Pork is a humble yet challenging ingredient with many ways to handle and cook it and the teams did not have much time to plan or create a dish to pair with the newly released Celebris Blanc de Blancs. The winners are very talented, they are the rising stars to look out for.”
Chef de Cave, Odilon de Varine, added, “Gosset champagne are fine wines enhanced with bubbles, which lend themselves well to be served with food. All the teams showed a good understanding of this, but the winning team, really showed thought and creativity in both their dishes in producing something that elevated but the champagne and the dishes they served.”
Now in its 7th year, Gosset Matchmakers focuses on interaction of fine wine and cuisine, the teamwork between chef and sommelier. Competitors must show thought and understanding of the Gosset style, in order to produce dishes which elevates both the dish and the wine to a higher plane.
The judging panel were sommeliers Melody Wong and James Shaw, head chef Laetizia Keating from The Pem, Gosset’s Chef de Caves Odilon de Varine and Guy Nightingale from Louis Latour Agencies, Gosset’s UK distributor.
The winners join a growing list of Matchmakers alumni, hold the ‘Matchmakers’ title for the next year, along with receiving a magnum each of Gosset champagne. They also win a two night VIP trip to visit Gosset’s headquarters in Epernay.
The 2022 finalists were:
Sommelier Sotir Semini and chef, Julien Deschamps of Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester in London
Sommelier Tristan Wright and chef, Jason Ramplin from The Dining Room at Chewton Glen
Sommelier Arthur Ng and chef Murid Laly from Spry Wines in Edinburgh
Past Gosset Matchmaker winners
2016: Sommelier Elisa Marchini and Chef Riccardo Pozzobon for The Lanesborough
2017: Sommelier Raphael Laurent Chef Ambra Papa for Petersham Nurseries
2018: Sommelier Vanessa Majella Stoltz and Chef Ian Waller for Forest Side
2019: Sommelier Oskars Mickans and Chef Piero Italiano for Heritage
2020: Sommelier Joshua Castle and Chef Myles Donaldson for Noble Rot
2021: Sommelier Matthew Davison and Chef Adam Eyre for Fischers, Baslow Hall
In the press: