What to Drink with What You Eat

When the opportunity presented itself to write about the newly published What to Drink with What you Eat by award-winning authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page as part of their month long virtual book tour, we jumped at the chance. What a great way to learn about a topic that we're interested in while helping to spread the word about a great new book.

The book is a pleasure to read and is packed with useful information. In the first four chapters, food and drink basics are presented with accompanying advice from some of the world's leading chefs and sommeliers. Useful charts such as the one titled, "If you like this, you might also like that" act as helpful guides in the exploration of wines that you may have heard of but haven't yet tried. Not sure where to get started with Italian wines? Just turn to page 31 and you'll find a list of twelve "starter" wines along with suggested food pairings provided by Joe Bastianich (Babbo, Lupa, Del Posto). If you're a bit farther along in your wine learning, but aren't at the expert level just yet, you'll likely find the section on the principles of balancing food and wine helpful.

Chapters 5 and 6 provide extensive listings of beverages and foods with corresponding pairings. To compile these lists Andrew and Karen tapped into their extensive experience as well as advice from dozens of expert chefs and sommeliers. Suggestions range from simple wine and cheese pairing recommendations to options for matching drinks with spices and herbs (star anise, thyme), snack food (Oreos, White Castle hamburgers) and various international cuisines (Vietnamese, Russian). The last two chapters in the book show sample menus from top U.S. restaurants and "desert island" pairings from their panel of experts.

Taking inspiration from the book, we thought it would be fun to solicit some advice of our own. In this spirit, and with a tip of the hat to Andrew and Karen, we've asked a few friends of Savory to provide a tip or two of their own on what to drink with some interesting menu items from a few New York City and San Francisco menus.

Every time I describe Allen Katz's job to someone, it elicits a similar reaction, something along the lines of, "wow, how can I get that job?" As the director of mixology and spirits education for Southern Wine & Spirits of New York and the co-chair of Slow Food USA, Allen is a wealth of knowledge about food and drink. We asked Allen make a recommendation for Chez Panisse's grilled Sonoma County Liberty Farm duck breast and duck leg confit with fried potatoes and red pepper jam. Allen wrote, "I would pair the dish with wine from Northern Rhone (usually a Syrah/Granache blend). These are juicy, full wines that should be quite tasty with the gaminess of the breast, the succulence (fat) of the leg and should be accented by the pepper jam."

Some additional recommendations for duck from What to Drink: Cahors (for confit especially) and California Pinot Noir.

We recently had a wonderful meal at Al Di La in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. We had the baccala mantecato with grilled polenta and I, for the life of me, can't remember what I had to drink with it. Since we plan to go back soon we thought we'd check in with Jody Williams, soon to be executive chef at Keith McNally's upcoming West Village enoteca and one of our favorite NYC chefs, to see what she would recommend pairing with the baccala next time around.  Jody writes, "I would pick a Gruner Veltliner to go with the bacala. I like a crisp white to start especially with something salty."

Some additional recommendations for pairing with salt cod from What to Drink: Dry Rosé, Cava.

Anyone who reads Augieland knows that Augie takes a serious interest in wine and thoughtfully prepared food. We asked Augie to imagine himself enjoying Wylie Dufresne's Turbot with salsify, smoked bulgur, coffee-saffroncotta at wd-50 in New York City's Lower East Side. Augie wrote, "The beverage I would choose for this is probably a Lillet. The coldness of a Lillet rocks will keep it light enough for a fish pairing.  Plus its aromatics and its fruit make me suspect it will handle the coffee and compliment the saffron, and smoke, while the slightly higher alcohol will cut the creaminess of the panacotta leaving the fish as the center."

Some additional recommendations for pairing with turbot from What to Drink: White Burgundy, Chardonnay.

While stopping in, virtually of course, to wd-50 we thought we'd see what Wylie and his father Dewey, who is the Wine Director at the restaurant, would choose to pair with a popular dish from Incanto in San Francisco. Our choice? The roasted lamb neck with farro polenta and cavolo nero. Wylie and Dewey suggest Agiorgitiko from Nemea, Greece, which they describe as "a very food compatible red grape." They would also recommend a Viognier, from either the Old and New World, as "a food friendly white grape underdog that pairs well with this dish."

Some additional recommendations for pairing with roasted lamb from What to Drink: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chianti Classico.

San Francisco's Incanto is a paradise for lovers of non-traditional cuts of meat aka offal. Executive chef and author of the Offal Good blog, Chris Cosentino, and Mark Pastore of Incanto were in town this week for Chris' guest appearance on Iron Chef. Having recently seen David Chang's new Three Terrine Sandwich - Ham, Head Cheese and Chicken Liver Pate on Momofuku Ssäm Bar's new late night menu, we wondering what the experts would pick given the choice. Chris and Mark responded, "We visited Ssam on Friday night (it was our last stop on the way to the airport before returning to San Francisco). We found the food delicious and exciting; we wish we had something like this in San Francisco."

Here are their three recommendations:

1) Riesling 2003, Falkenstein.  Riesling is a natural with cured meats, hams, and pates -- thanks to its high acidity and oily texture. Due to the vintage, this particular Riesling from Italy's Alto Adige region has a ripeness of fruit that lends weight and texture to balance out the acidity.  It finishes with notes of flint and petrol.

2) Pinot Nero 2004, La Vis.  Pinot Nero pairs well with this sandwich because of its natural high acidity and absence of significant tannins.  This wine has soft cherry fruit and comes from 20 year-old vines grown on the Italian-Austrian border in Trentino.

3) Peroni Nastro Azzuro. The Blue Ribbon of Italian beers (note: "Nastro Azzuro" means "Blue Ribbon" in Italian).  This lager-style beer is dry, crisp, and slightly hoppy.  It won't overpower the subtle flavors of this sandwich, but will cleanse the palate after each bite.

Some additional recommendations for pairing with paté from What to Drink: Beaujolais or a strong lager beer.

Many thanks to Andrew and Karen for having us as guests on their virtual book tour. We hope you'll pick up a copy of their new book.

Visit Savory New York later today to see the new video for Momofuku Ssäm Bar.