Tapas, Picada & Piattini wine event

Among the fastest growing trends in American restaurants is the “small plate” phenomenon.  This style of eating and dining focuses on very diminutive portions, served on the aforementioned small plates, to increase the variety of foods tried at a single meal.  This is a boon to diners who love to pick and choose lots of appetizers, which are often the most inventive and interesting dishes at restaurants.   Typically small-plate style portions are even teenier than appetizers – offering only two to three bites to tempt the palate.

Campus House wanted to bring the enjoyment of this growing small plates trend to their Buffalo State College audience and hosted their “Tapas, Picada & Piattini” event on Friday, April 11.  The name of the event draws on the names for small plates from various countries whose foods were featured.  The most commonly recognizable name is tapas – the small plates of Spain – where the experience of tiny plates has been a cultural mainstay for many generations.  Legend has it that bar-goers used plates to cover their wine glasses and shield their drinks from flies.  Ingenious restaurateurs began selling food to sit on these drink toppers and, hence, tapas were born.

 

American wine and small plates 

Campus House students planning this event wanted to showcase the unique small-plate eating style as well as some great wines paired with each country’s chosen dish.  The countries featured were Spain (naturally!), France, Italy, and America.  Food preparation students working in the kitchen with Chef Shetice Williams dreamed up small dishes famous in each country.  Senior Hospitality students, working at Campus House as servers, researched and created brochures for each country’s wine and food pairing.

Student-produced wine brochures for the event

This event was unique in that the student servers had to not only be polished and professional hosts and servers at this Friday night social event, but they had to be virtual experts on their chosen country as well -- explaining the food, describing the paired wine, and giving background on the small plates tradition in their country.  The student manager for the event was Rebecca Weiss.  The event concierge, welcoming guests and giving small-plate primers for first-timers, was Samantha Alexandre.  Student servers and small-plate extraordinaires were Jason Schmidle (France), Ashley Hill (Italy), Nicole Mokhiber (USA), and Carol Reyes (Spain).  Each student chose their role or country and had a great spiel to “sell” their particular wine.

 

Samantha welcomes guests with a smile

France’s featured small dish was pan-fried smelt with lemon butter.  Smelt is a highly underrated seasonal delight in this country, but – as with most tiny, oily fish – is highly esteemed in France, as well as Europe in general.   The crunchy smelt were paired with a refreshing Rose wine, whose light acidity nicely cut through the richness of the smelt.

 

Jason offers a French Rose

Spain is the land of rich and delicious sausages, cheese, and olives.  A clean and crisp red Garnacha wine highlighted the aromatic valdeon and manchego cheeses and chorizo sausage featured.  These tasty bites are among the most iconic tapas – the original finger foods!

Carol shows off a Spanish Grenacha 

The featured wine of Italy was a lesser-known varietal called Verdicchio.  This fragrant and fresh white wine paired deliciously and seamlessly with a notoriously hard-to-match food -- artichokes -- in the Italian classic arancini or fried rice balls.

Ashley pours a Italian Verdicchio 

The United States wine matches were rather playful, pairing a California white Pinot Blanc with avocado and crab-stuffed California rolls.  Northern California Cabernet Sauvignon with Philly cheese steak sliders also made a fun combination.

 

Nicole with a California Cabernet Sauvignon

We look forward to seeing you soon at Campus House, where you can expect world-class service.  Our annual Hospitality Ambassador Awards are on Wednesday, April 23 – we hope to see you there for the event’s 20^th anniversary!