Mirella Amato is a trilingual beer consultant, beer sommelier, and award-winning author based in Toronto, Ontario, a foremost specialist on beer, with a focus on education, sensory analysis, and beer and food pairing. She was the first woman in Canada to become a Certified CiceroneCicerone Certification Program 2012 Accessed March 12, 2012 and, in 2012, became the first non-US resident to earn the Master Cicerone® certification.Master Cicerone Certification Program 2012 Accessed December 11, 2012 She is also the recipient of the 2012 Ontario Craft Brewers Centre of Excellence Industry Choice Award in Food & Beer Matching DevelopmentOntario Craft Brewers Association 2012 Accessed December 11, 2012 and in 2018 she was inducted into the Belgian brewers' Guild as an Honorary Knight of the Brewer's Paddle. In January 2025, Mirella became the second person in CanadaBeer Judge Certification Program 2012. Accessed March 12, 2012. and the first Master Cicerone to earn the title of Grand Master Judge with the Beer Judge Certification Program.
In 2008, Amato founded Beerology,Beerology Accessed March 3, 2012 a company through which she offers craft beer and sensory consulting services.Beerology: Services Accessed March 12, 2012 Amato is the co-founder of the Toronto-based cask ale advocacy group Cask!.Cask! 2008. Accessed March 8, 2012 She is also the founder of the Toronto Chapters of the women-only international beer-appreciation society, Barley's AngelsBarley’s Angels. Accessed March 12, 2012 as well as its professional counterpart, the Pink Boots Society.
Amato has appeared on CBC Radio,CBC Radio 2011 Accessed February 22, 2012Here and Now February 11, 2011 Accessed March 9, 2012 Radio Canada, History Television,Beer: What's In a Name? 2012 Accessed March 12, 2012 CityTV's Breakfast TelevisionBreakfast Television, June 25, 2010 Accessed March 12, 2012 and Canada.comCanada.com 2012 Accessed March 12, 2012 She also contributed a number of entries to the Oxford Companions to Beer.Google Books 2011. Accessed March 12, 2012 Her first book, Beerology: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Beer...Even More, Accessed June 23 published by AppetiteAppetite by Random House Accessed June 23, 2014 by Random House, was released on May 27, 2014Amazon.com Accessed June 23 and has been translated into French and German.
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.
In 2014, she introduced “Mirella’s rule of thumb”. This “general rule”, which was published in her book, Beerology: 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”, 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. 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. 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.
References
External links Official site