When the famous explorer Fernando Magellan was preparing to sail around the world in 1519, he spent more money on buying wine for his trip than on weapons.

When remembering this fun fact, some today may wonder whether it applies to modern people travelling abroad. To translate it into terms of the modern world: does one go abroad together with his or her pretences about food and wine?

According to Jacques Brune, general manager of the Hilton Sofia hotel, globalisation has long ago sent this notion into history. “Years ago, the main concern for travellers, and the hospitality industry providing the service, was to secure a nice bed and room. The taste of food or drinks was, if not a last, then at least a secondary concern. Today, hotels must take care of full customer satisfaction, which definitely includes food and drinks,” Brune said.

When it comes to food, the Hilton serves what it calls classic food, meaning that clients can have for example, a Caesar salad or a renowned club sandwich, of the same taste and quality at any point of the world. However, if good service also means offering variety, classic meals are far from enough.

“Before, it was just a question of eating and drinking. Now, more and more people are concerned about the quality. They are asking about the origin of food and drinks. If you fail to comply with quality standards for food and beverages, then the quality of your entire service drops,” he said.

Another important change for the Hilton, as for hospitality outlets around the world, has been the gradual introduction of healthy options for eating and drinking. If people are counting every calorie they eat, the industry should be able to provide them with the healthiest possible menu, Brune says.

Providing the right drinking options is also important. Drink is linked to food, first, in terms of the proper combination of the drink with the meal, and second, through other concerns like drinking and driving or working.

“Before, in Europe, as well as the rest of the world, people were allowed, to a certain extent, to have drinks and drive. Today, limitations exist everywhere and are becoming stricter,” Brune says.

“Usually, you would serve a bottle of white wine with a starter, then red wine with the food. Now people prefer to have only one bottle of wine, red or white - it doesn’t matter. At lunches, when business is good and people are busy, the demand is dropping. So, we have started to sell half-bottles of wine. At the same time, we also have to cater for the guests who want a larger variety. This is where we have implemented the ‘wine by class’ approach, where you offer local wine and also a selection of wines from all over the world,” he says.

Brune has no doubt about the fact that, no matter from which corner of the world people come to the Hilton, they like, and prefer to drink, Bulgarian wine. Local Bulgarian wine is very good, can be sold in different varieties by the glass, and can be served to anyone who wants to explore. This trend in popular local wines is evident in all wine-producing countries.

“Eighty per cent of visitors to France drink local wines and the rest of the consumption is made up from varieties from all over the world. The same ratio exists in Bulgaria,” Brune said.

To combine the wine with the best possible food, the Hilton also experiments with organising festivals of cuisine from various parts of the world. Their experience in Sofia has so far proven that this is an excellent opportunity for people who want to not just eat and drink, but also appreciate food and beverages. The key issue in this case is to identify a country which has nice food and a large variety of meals.

“Last year, we held an Italian food festival and we will do it again because it was a big success. Then, we had a Turkish one, which was fantastic. In both cases, we had very good feedback from the customers,” Brune said. He said that these experiments in the name of  good service would continue with Greek cuisine, because of its quality and variety, “and why not with Moroccan and Lebanese?”.

One can understand why the Hilton Sofia manager stakes so much on the proper food-wine combination by the fact that he is French.  Wine is in the blood of French people.

“In France, wine is business, but it is also part of our culture. Every year, France is visited by an average of 60 million tourists from all over the world. This is good for promoting French wine because it is the easiest way of learning about it,” Brune says in explanation of the indisputable leadership of his country in the sector. But, he also enjoys the fact that, in recent years, French people have become more open to discovering and tasting foreign types of wine.

While he hopes that the French will soon learn about Bulgarian wine and taste its rich flavour, he finds it hard to compare the two regions.

“I like Bulgarian wine very much, but it has its own taste. I see that our guests at the Hilton drink Bulgarian wine and like it too. But, I do not want to compare,” he says.

And indeed, the truth about wine is to appreciate it if it is good, no matter what its origin is. The other truth about wine, including that of Bulgaria, according to Brune, is that it is a way to discover the country and its people.l