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Tuck How to Match Food and Wine into a basket with an interesting bottle of wine and you’ve got a welcome gift for any food and wine buff. This comprehensive guide is a fine introduction into the not-so-tough art of pairing two of life’s pleasures – wine and food. Discover how the right wine elevates the simplest dish and turns a meal into an exotic adventure or sublime occasion.
Author Fiona Beckett gets it right at the outset and says that “choosing a wine shouldn’t be a worry and drinking it should be fun.” She extols the pleasures of eating and drinking regionally and gives recommendations for French wine with French dishes and for Italian, Greek, Moroccan pairings, to name a few. Beckett gives both safe choices and experimental ones on what wine to drink with your favourite curry, lamb dish or chocolate cake and even tackles the toughies like salads, eggs and asparagus.
Sidebars are packed with quick bites like making a not-quite-there pairing sing with a magical squeeze of lemon or a sprinkling of salt. Other tips such as drinking light-bodied wine with light food and big gutsy wines with bold flavours make sense as does realizing that it’s not the type of food you serve but how it’s cooked, the seasonings and what else is on the plate that figure into the match-making.
Beckett clearly nailed the pairings with recipes that are easy, practical and adventurous. Time to add a few more bottles to my cellar and start cooking.
Reviewed by Judith Lane, wine and food writer | 
