Showing posts with label SF Chefs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SF Chefs. Show all posts

Pairing Wine and Produce

August 15, 2010 SF Chefs , 1 Comments
When Foodbuzz gave me the opportunity to attend some of the events at SF Chefs Week on Friday I was specifically interested in my interview of Daniel Scherotter and of the Food Media panel in the afternoon. Actually, I found the Food Media discussion disappointing and not even worth writing about. But Foodbuzz was kind enough to throw in an extra seminar - Nature's Blueprint: Pairing Wine and Produce with Your Eyes.

Now my readers know that I don't drink alcohol and so the idea of going to a wine pairing discussion is not really my thing. But it was free, supposed to include food (ha!), and educational. So I went for it.

I arrived early and took a front seat. In front of me were three pours from Kendall Jackson: Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Reserve Chardonnay, and Reserve Pinot Noir.  Our instructor was Gilian Handelman, Directory of Wine Education at Kendall Jackson. 

Handelman explained that in 1997 they had planted a 2.5 acre organic garden. When they got their first crop of produce and decided to taste it with their wines, they had laid out the wines light to dark and the produce light to dark. Now while it was a normal wine behavior to line the wines out that way, they just happened to do it that way for the produce. They tasted and everything was fine. Then someone noticed and said, why not mix up the produce? Why did we follow a color order? So they mixed up the produce and tasted again. Awful.

It was then that they realized that the color lineup they had done was instinctual and yet matched correctly with the wines.  What was it about the colors that influenced the tastes? Darker fruits and vegetables have polyphenols and just as they work to influence the taste of the wine, they influence what the wine should be drunk with.

Handelman then showed us listings of the color categories.
White/tan – white nectarines and peaches, turnips, cauliflower,  etc. These are the most bland in flavor with no bitterness.
Green – apples, greens, limes, green grapes, pears
Yellow/orange – most citrus, melons, peach, corn, carrots, pumpkin
Red – strawberries, cherries, tomatoes, red peppers, beets
Blue/black/purple – eggplant, black currants, blueberries, black olives
As you get darker, the flavors become more pronounced. 


We were given small plates of produce with light and dark versions of things. For instance, green and red cabbage, yellow and red raspberry, Green Zebra tomato versus a dark, red beefsteak tomato. It was then time to taste.

Now remember, I don’t drink. So although I gave it my best shot, it really was ridiculous to expect me to taste the differences. But, I’ll explain one interesting thing a little later. We were first told to taste each wine. There were spit cups for the others, but I, of course, just took the tiniest sip hoping that I could at least taste the difference. Not surprisingly, for someone who never drinks alcohol, they all tasted the same to me – alcohol!  LOL! I couldn’t tell any difference because the only thing my untrained tongue tasted was alcohol.

Don’t discount my having anything to share with you then. It was still an interesting discussion and I still have to share the little surprise.

We started with the first item, the green cabbage. Really, it’s mostly white or light green. It was very mild and had a vegetative taste. We were then to taste it first with the Sauvignon and then with the Pinot Noir.  Next we took a bite of the red cabbage. There was definitely more flavor in the red. As we tasted it with the two wines Handelman waited to see everyone’s reaction.

So here’s the surprise. Even though all the wine tasted the same to me (alcohol) there WAS a noticeable difference when I tasted ill-paired items. When I put the red cabbage with the Sauvignon or the green cabbage with the Pinot (bad pairings) there was a definite flavor clash/jolt I got from them. Whereas pairing them properly – red cabbage to Pinot – was less so.

We tasted around the plate, light and then dark. It was interesting because there were the light and dark versions of the same produce. Some items were alone. Corn, for instance. But then we got to the eggplant and the red runnerbean. First Handelman asked us to taste just the insides, which are white and bland. Then again, this time with the dark skin. The skin has all the color and the flavor. It made a difference when you tasted them with wine.

We were given maps of how KJ has their gardens laid out today. The white wine garden has paler produce items and is arranged in quandrants for wines. In the Chardonnay corner is lemon, peach, pear, melon, and gardenia. In the Gewurtztraminer/Riesling quadrant is orange, grapefruit, mint, and jasmine.

The red wine garden had all the darker produce. In the Pinot corner is plum, blueberry, tomato, raspberries, while the Cabernet/Merlot quadrant has black currants, bell peppers, black cherries, oregano.

Handelman said that it is interesting to watch people tasting wine and then strolling through the gardens because there really is a sensory experience that matches with the wines. 

We ended with Q&A and one woman asked the question, “So how should you pair? Wine to food or food to wine?” The answer was that it depends on the circumstance. If you have some particular food that you are showcasing, at a peach festival for instance, then you pair the wine to the food. But if your spouse comes home with some spectacular wine, then figure out the food to go with the wine.

The end point was the same as the start. Go by instinct and use color as your guide.


on
Labels:

Chef Interview: Daniel Scherotter

August 14, 2010 chef , SF Chefs 0 Comments


"To get girls." That was the answer to my first question to Chef Daniel Scherotter, owner and head chef of Italian restaurant Palio D'Asti. I had asked him, "Why Italian?" After all, his is not an Italian last name and he had been studying philosophy at William & Mary in Virginia. But as a young man his thoughts were on girls and he figured that learning Italian and cooking were good lures. During a semester in Italy he started bartering his time. He would translate restaurant menus to English while learning proper Italian cooking in their kitchens.

So much for philosophy. After years of training in Bologna, Italy he returned to the U.S. and went to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. He then continued learning under the guidance of Gary Danko, Craig Stoll, Bruce Hill and others. Eventually he ended up buying out his partners at Palio D'Asti to become sole owner.


We were at the William Sonoma store at Union Square.  Scherotter was there to do a cooking demonstration for SF Chefs Week.  As he prepped we talked about Italian cooking.  Did he favor a certain region?  That was “a mood question”, he replied, as well as seasonal. Northern cooking, in which he was trained, is more of a winter style with more meats, truffles, nuts, and richer foods. Southern is more summer and vibrant with its fresher produce like eggplant and zucchini. Northern fresh pasta uses egg and durum while Southern dried pasta uses water and semolina. He said each region could be wildly different as well. Most Americans know Tuscan, which he considered the worst region to relate Italian cooking to. But travel just 60 miles to the north and they are using different meats, cheeses, and oils to cook.

Scherotter was making a Sicilian caponata (recipe below). What he loved about Sicily was that it had so many influences from over the centuries: Moorish, Jewish, Greek. He pointed out the ingredients and explained that a trait of Sicilian cooking was pairing ingredients. Capers are with olives, pine nuts with raisins, anchovies with garlic. Someone asked about crushed versus sliced garlic and Sherotter explained that the Italians infuse the oil with the garlic by putting the garlic and oil in the skillet and then heating them together. Soon the dish was complete and samples were passed around. I’ll admit. I passed on it. After all, it had two things I really dislike, eggplant and olives.


We continued our conversation after the others left. What were his dining pet peeves? As a chef, he said, he was baffled by the way diners want to change the menu items. Although he’ll cater to the guest with such things as dressing on the side or remove olives due to an allergy, he, like all chefs, gets annoyed with a demand to change a dish in such a way that destroys its integrity. And as a diner? The chef in him still comes out in the diner. He hates when a server gives an opinion on a dish. He’d rather they stick to the facts. Explain that a dish is chicken in a spicy sauce of peppers and capers instead of saying they are a vegetarian and it was too spicy for them.

We talked as well about his participation in the Golden Gate Restaurant Association where he has been a past president. He talked about the importance of the Association representing restaurants as a group when talking about working with suppliers or dealing with city regulations. As my readers know, I have an interest in food trucks. I had read an article that made Scherotter appear anti-food truck and had to ask him about it. He said he understands the interest in food trucks and some of the interesting and unique foods they bring to the public. But as a small business owner, he explained that it’s the brick and mortars that employ more people and supply the city with more tax revenue. So why is it that the City Council tries to make it easier for the street vendors to operate, who generate no real tax revenue, while they constantly add more restrictions to the brick and mortars? I appreciated his viewpoint.

I thanked the Chef for his time. I found him charming and laid back. It seemed to me his personality was just fine for attracting the girls.




640 Sacramento Street
415-395-9800
Features a prix fixe menu where you can choose to have 2 courses ($29), 3 courses ($37) or 4 courses ($45) and select anything from the menu. Wines are retail plus corkage.


Caponata

6 eggplants, diced and fried golden

½ red onion, julienned

4 stalks of celery, sliced half moon, blanched and shocked

1 T chopped garlic

2 oz anchovy filets

2 oz Sicilian olives, quartered

2 oz capers

2 oz toasted pine nuts

2 oz sultana raisins, plumped in Marsala wine

3 oz red wine vinegar

Pinch of dry mint and oregano

Bunch of mint, chiffonnade

1-2 pts tomato sauce

2 T Olive oil

Salt and pepper


Saute onions, garlic, and anchovies in olive oil. Do not overheat the pan. You want to cook the vegetables, not brown them. Deglaze with vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce a bit. Add tomato sauce, dry mint, and oregano. Simmer until thicker. Season to taste. Cool and combine with remaining ingredients, folding together. Add fresh mint when serving (on crostini) or it will lose its aroma and color.
on
Labels: ,