Mirella Amato

Mirella Amato
Mirella Amato at café 't Brugs Beertje in Bruges
Personal details
NationalityCanadian
OccupationBeer Consultant

Mirella Amato is a trilingual beer consultant, beer sommelier, and author based in Toronto, Ontario, a foremost specialist on Beer in Canada. She was the first woman in Canada to become a Certified Cicerone[1] and, in 2012, became the first non-US resident to earn the Master Cicerone® certification.[2][3] Amato is one of very few judges in the Beer Judge Certification Program in Canada to have reached the Master Level of certification.[4] She is also the recipient of the 2012 Ontario Craft Brewers Centre of Excellence Industry Choice Award in Food & Beer Matching Development[5] and in 2018 she was inducted into the Belgian brewers' Guild as an Honorary Knight of the Brewer's Paddle.[6]

In 2008, Amato founded Beerology,[7] a company through which she offers craft beer and sensory consulting services.[8] Amato is the co-founder of the Toronto-based cask ale advocacy group Cask!.[9] She is also the founder of the Toronto Chapters[10] of the women-only international beer-appreciation society, Barley's Angels [11] as well as its professional counterpart, the Pink Boots Society.[12]

Amato has appeared on CBC Radio,[13][14] Radio Canada,[15] History Television,[16] CityTV's Breakfast Television[17] and Canada.com[18] She also contributed a number of entries to the Oxford Companions to Beer.[19] Her first book, Beerology: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Beer...Even More,[20] published by Appetite [21] by Random House, was released on May 27, 2014[22] and has been translated into French[23] and German.[24]

Contributions to Beer & Food Pairing

Mirella specializes in pairing beer with food and has made several significant contributions in this space, which were first recognized in 2012 when she won the Ontario Craft Brewers Centre of Excellence Industry Choice Award in Food & Beer Matching Development.[25]

In 2014, she introduced “Mirella’s rule of thumb[26]”. This “general rule”, which was published in her book, Beerology:[27] Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Beer…Even More, states that, in a pinch, you can “line up the depth of colour of the beer with the colour of the main ingredient in the dish.” It has since been widely adopted, if not always attributed.

In December 2019, in part 3 of the YouTube series she called ‘Questioning Old Beer Habits[28]”, Mirella outlined why the “3 Cs of food pairing” (cut, complement, contrast) should be revisited. These three ‘techniques’ had previously been thought of as three different ways to pairing beer with food.[29] Mirella proposed that all three elements (cut, complement and contrast) should come together in order to create a successful pairing.

In October 2021, Mirella released an online course on pairing beer with food.[30] In it, she proposes several updates to how beer and food pairing is approached. Among them are the necessity to identify multiple bridges in each pairing as well as the use of what she terms ‘flavour groups’ to identify bridges. In the course, she also published, for the first time, her theory on the three pairing dynamics (the meld, the dance and the third flavour), which she had been sharing in beer and food pairing talks and trainings since 2013.[31]

References

  1. ^ Cicerone Certification Program 2012 Archived 2012-03-18 at the Wayback Machine Accessed March 12, 2012
  2. ^ "Find a Certified Professional | Cicerone Certification Program". www.cicerone.org. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  3. ^ Master Cicerone Certification Program 2012 Archived 2013-12-12 at the Wayback Machine Accessed December 11, 2012
  4. ^ Beer Judge Certification Program 2012. Accessed March 12, 2012.
  5. ^ Ontario Craft Brewers Association 2012 Accessed December 11, 2012
  6. ^ "Belgian Brewers - The Knighthood of the Brewers' Paddle". www.belgianbrewers.be. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  7. ^ Beerology Accessed March 3, 2012
  8. ^ Beerology: Services Accessed March 12, 2012
  9. ^ Cask! 2008. Accessed March 8, 2012
  10. ^ "Barleys Angels Toronto". Barleys Angels Toronto. Archived from the original on 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  11. ^ Barley’s Angels. Accessed March 12, 2012
  12. ^ "Chapter Leader". my.pinkbootssociety.org. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  13. ^ CBC Radio 2011 Accessed February 22, 2012
  14. ^ Here and Now February 11, 2011 Accessed March 9, 2012
  15. ^ "ICI Radio-Canada Première | Balados, livres audio". Radio-Canada (in French). Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  16. ^ Beer: What's In a Name? 2012 Archived 2012-05-04 at the Wayback Machine Accessed March 12, 2012
  17. ^ Breakfast Television, June 25, 2010 Accessed March 12, 2012
  18. ^ Canada.com 2012 Accessed March 12, 2012
  19. ^ Google Books 2011. Accessed March 12, 2012
  20. ^ Random House 2014[permanent dead link‍] Accessed June 23
  21. ^ Appetite by Random House Archived 2014-07-01 at the Wayback Machine Accessed June 23, 2014
  22. ^ Amazon.com Accessed June 23
  23. ^ "Découvrez le monde de la bière". Éditions Broquet Inc. (in French). Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  24. ^ "Bierologie". www.boersenmedien.de. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  25. ^ "I won a beer award! | Beerology | Craft Beer and Sensory Consulting". Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  26. ^ "Are You A Beerologist?". Fiesta Farms. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  27. ^ "Beerology by Mirella Amato: 9780449016121 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  28. ^ Beerology (2019-12-13). Questioning Old Beer Habits - part 3. Retrieved 2024-12-13 – via YouTube.
  29. ^ Budrakey, Erik (2021-03-30). "The Three C's of Pairing Beer and Food". True Brew America. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  30. ^ "Mastering Beer & Food Pairing brought to you by Beerology". Beerology. Retrieved 2024-12-13.
  31. ^ "Beer Dinner Menus | Beerology | Craft Beer and Sensory Consulting". Retrieved 2024-12-13.