Match

Students at Weymouth College, Dorset, welcomed the Gran Orden de Caballeros at the end of last year for the first in a series of food- and wine-matching lunches, which are to be held at catering colleges throughout the country.

The Gran Orden was created to give recognition to those members of the UK wine trade who have shown "exceptional endeavour" in promoting Spain's quality wines. So, led by Gran Orden member Nick Tarayan, managing director of Leith's restaurant, London, an invited audience of 20 local hoteliers, restaurateurs and wine writers sat down to a lunch prepared by the college's craft students and served by its BTec students.

The students had been asked to match a variety of Spanish wines with certain dishes. The menu included a pairing of breast of pheasant en croñte, wild mushrooms, Cumberland sauce and a rich game jus with a Vi¤a Arana 1987 Rioja from Bodegas Fundadas, and a selection of seafood on a bed of curly endive with a Vi¤as del Vero 1994 Chenin Blanc from Compa¤ºa Vitivinºcola Aragonesa.

Four colleges are targeted for 1996.