Choosing the right wine for Thanksgiving

The selection for my upcoming class on Thanksgiving Wines

The great annual celebration of Thanksgiving brings all our families together over a table with more food than any of us could possibly eat.  So much thought and effort goes into producing the food, but very little thought goes into which wines to pair with this abundant meal.  Beaujolais Nouveau often makes its debut as the first wine of the season and can bless our tables with a snapshot of the French vintage. Beaujolais Nouveau is rarely more than a bubble gum style wine and though very quaffable is hardly deign of gracing the table for the whole meal.

There are no hard and set rules to pairing the right wine with this traditional meal, but I will try to offer you some good tips on choosing the wine style appropriate to the celebration.  

2011 Starchefs – International Chefs Congress – Day 3

Ground Zero

This morning we were able to catch up on sleep as I wasn’t expected to be at the Congress until 12:30pm.  We took the opportunity to head down to ground zero. 

2011 Starchefs – International Chefs Congress – Day 2

Chris Young one of the authors of Modernist Cuisine and his lab set up

Heading out into the street on Monday had a very different feel to it than Sunday.  The city was bustling with workers.  Wherever I went on the subway, I was fighting the tide of the working masses. 

2011 Starchefs – International Chef Congress – Day 1

Day one of the Somm Slam

It was hard getting up by 9am to prepare for the “Blood and Curds” Spanish Wine and Cheese seminar and the calm along 6 Ave. on a Sunday morning made it even harder to get out of the comfortable bed.

In previous years at the ICC the lines to get in were overwhelming and the registration seemed disorganized.

2011 Starchefs – International Chefs Congress – Amuse

The logo and theme for this year's Starchefs ICC Congress

Sometime in August I got an email from Starchefs to fill out their industry survey and become eligible for a drawing for a free ticket to attend this year’s Congress.  Midway thru September I was informed I had won free entrance. 

You say Asado……………

Taming the fire for some long burning coals

After many changes in direction and detail, the day of the Asador came.  It all started like this. 

Swine before Pearls

Mark deNettis and Chef Bob from Fuel

I’ve been wanting to attend a Whole Hog Hoe Down at Il Mondo Vecchio for awhile and this past Memorial Day weekend while most were putting their sausage on their grills we were making ours.

Hot pork puns, Hot pork buns

Hot pork buns from the Momofuku Book

I could go full hog on this post and turn a sows ear into a purse but I am too busy bringing home the bacon to feast on the trough of puns available to me.  Just the mention of pork belly makes most women recoil with fear as they visualize themselves in their summer bikinis. 

Putting some Chang Shui in my cooking and other strange Kombu-nations

I recently borrowed this book from work and have been enjoying it completely.  First of all it is a very fun read. I especially like the part where he talks about how he came up with the name of his restaurant “It is no accident that Momofuku sounds like motherfucker” he states.

But if you try sometime….you’ll find….you don’t need to knead

My first attempt at No Knead Bread

So I have been curious about the no knead bread craze for awhile but it wasn’t until I read this blog post that I was motivated to try Jim Lahey’s famous NYT recipe.

I’m definitely a convert.  This is the easiest dough I have ever worked with and can literally be made in about 10 minutes.  Then you wait a day, crank up your oven, bake it in a covered stock pot for 30 minutes, remove the lid and finish the bread for another 15 minutes. Voila.