Good Morning!

Most of you know I am an avid reader. Anything about food, wine or sports I can lose an entire day just reading and educating myself on any aspect of these subjects. When I was reading my last favorite book, Secrets of a Sommelier, by Rajat Parr, he mentioned the book Daring Pairings, By Evan Goldstein, I ordered it from Amazon and when it arrived, it kinda looked more like a high end cookbook and I was excited but I was hoping it would be more about wine.

Well, as normal this book can not be judged by it’s cover. It is an amazing book about wine and it is also an amazing book about food and cooking excellent meals. Evan Goldstein is a Master Sommelier and he starts the book out really diving deeply into the wine and the 5 key aspects of wine.

1. Acidity
2. Sweetness
3. Tannin
4. Oak
5. Alcohol

Then he launches into food and how they interact. I think the part of this book that really spoke to me was, He said, Wine will stay consistent, you can not change that, but a chef or cook can change food to make them really work together. He put in some cool sort of experienments so you can teach yourself at home.

One of the exercises was to make chicken 3 ways, boiled, grilled and fried and then try 3 wines with each and see what you taste and feel in your mouth. I broke out the chicken and tried this little experiment at home on a couple folks and they are not “wine” people but they are wine lovers and we had a really eye opening experience. Evan has about 6-7 of these experiments in the first part of the book, so you can taste how the food is prepared changes the way the food works with or against the food. VERY COOL…I am really hands-on so this was a great learning tool for me!

As the book progresses, it discusses tips for what works with each wine and then there are beautiful pictures of the wines that are really easy to find and what foods are amazing or Daring Pairings and the recipes are included. At the top of each wines’ page, there is a story about each grape varietal and that helped me connect the regions and cultures together. Well written and highly informative.

When it comes to the recipe, they come from world known chefs and I was intimidated…but the were written in a direct and very accurate way. Some were complicated and some were very straight forward. I have made 4 recipes and all turned out tasting wonderful ( I am going to need some training on plating like a chef). Some of the recipes have some items I had to look for, but I could find them, so you will be able to as well. Most of you know I like to cook, but I am much better with the grill and no recipe, but I was excited to try these recipes and pair the wines.

Another aspect of this book I really enjoyed, he added some great pairings at the end of each section of each grape and he even made suggestions of producers.

This book is packed with wine knowledge and if you like to play in the kitchen, this book is a great read and resource. I plan on using 3 of these recipes in the next 2 weeks for special dinners when my best pal “Cubby” gets here and we can hang out in the kitchen and opening many, many bottles of wine.

I wanted to share this Daring Pairing with you!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi