Coffee cuts the richness of ham-and-cheese quiche

After roasting at the shop one Sunday, Priya Desai, owner at Ember & Bean, had a quiet lunch: a slice of ham-and-cheese quiche and a cortado she made herself.

What do people actually drink with that slice? The two people who told Bonzai about a pairing they remembered both chose coffee for the way it cuts the quiche’s richness. A third offered a wine match, but made clear it was a recommendation, not a memory.

Desai likes how espresso cuts through the cheese and ham. Nico Sato, co-owner and baker at Sparrow & Crumb, usually drinks hot black coffee with ham-and-cheese quiche for much the same reason: Sato likes its contrast with the cheese and buttery crust.

The little milk in Desai’s cortado smooths the drink without making it feel heavy, she said. Sato grabs a slice between batches and keeps the coffee black: “I’ll grab a slice between batches, take a sip, and suddenly it feels like a proper lunch—even if my sister still laughs at me,” Sato said.

Miriam Sayegh, sommelier and wine buyer at Cedar Table, would pair the quiche with a dry Lebanese white wine with bright acidity and little oak. She thinks its acidity would cut through the cheese and its fruit would hold up to the salty ham. Unlike Desai and Sato, Sayegh was not describing a pairing she remembered drinking: “I can tell you what I’d pair with it, but I don’t want to pass that off as a memory,” she said.

The two people who recalled a drink with ham-and-cheese quiche chose coffee to cut its richness; the third offered wine as a recommendation, not a memory.

At Desai’s Sunday lunch, the quiche changed the drink, too: “The espresso tasted a little brighter after the salty bite, and the milk softened the finish. It made the next bite of quiche taste good again,” she said.