Lommel The local horse Sanne Dirkx (28) is Monday was declared ‘Sommelier of the Year’. The employee of restaurant Cuchara of Lommel is only the first woman in the tenth anniversary of the contest this title receives. “I’ve had a very eventful career behind him, only after a collective dismissal in the administration, I came by chance in the hospitality industry.”
The professional career of Sanne seems to be the story of the twelve together with people and thirteen accidents. “I initially studied for a week, but that was really nothing for me. Then I came in the administration go, until I had to leave. I had recently bought a house and could just not afford not to work. So I came off at a butcher and I followed the necessary training. And because in the evenings I still have a job, it wanted to take, I knocked at Cuchara.”
Own style
Chef Jan Tournier believed in the services of his employee. “At first I was purely in the operation, but on a night there was suddenly a sommelier needed and I was for the lions rolled. This is how it all started. The beginning was not easy, because you need a develop his own style. On myself, I am going to specialize, I have a lot of wines tasted, learned about the craft and a little bit of the eyes appear when my colleague Huub was working. We are a good team. He does the classics, I’ll do the less obvious wines.”
Thanks to the customers of the culinary world arrived Already on the shortlist of the competition for sommeliers. “I was selected as a provincial candidate. In Vilvoorde I was named as the winner of Limburg. In the finale in Gent, I had then a wine proposals such as I that in a restaurant would do. With success, as it turns out.”
Opulence and humility
The 28-year-old woman managed according to the jury, wonderfully in to opulence and humility to bring together. Dirx opted for the white wines of the Moselle, the Riesling Kabinett Trocken of Selbach Oster, which she suggested with a sashimi of fish with bulgur, miso and ginger. “In its justification, it became apparent that they freshness and a sourish wild when the fish, while the floral character and subtle emphasis on the umami of the miso and the strength of the ginger,” said the jury. The young local horse shares the title with the 29-year-old Antoine Dubois from Namur.