Hardcover
153 pages
$44.00
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The ideal way to enjoy this book is to open a bottle of wine, find a recommended recipe and unless you're drinking an "extreme" wine like a Greek retsina or Portuguese vinho verde, cook away and bob's your uncle - a perfect match.
A wine writer for Decanter, Gourmet, Food & Wine and several newspapers, Brian St. Pierre regularly eats out with assorted chefs, wine pros, writers and restaurateurs in gustatory free-for-alls, arguing the merits of different wines with different cuisines. He's wined, dined and debated with the best and The Perfect Match sums it all up. This is a terrific romp salted with humorous anecdotes: See if you can figure which "serious Vancouver multimillionaire gourmet" hosted an extravagant dinner and served Champagne - the only wine he drinks - throughout. According to St. Pierre, "The wine wilted through all those mismatches, and the food seemed clumsy, like a large man dancing with a small girl."
In addition to mouth-watering recipes gleaned from the likes of Italy's Piero Antinori, Napa's Schramsberg Vineyards, Moose's in San Francisco and Chateau St. Michelle Winery in Washington, St. Pierre delivers the goods on wine varietals and disses wine's "rules, roles and myths".
With any cookbook, the test is in the recipes and these taste even better than they read. From appetisers to desserts, most have several recommended pairings. Best of all, The Perfect Match's index lists the wines and recipes together while elsewhere you'll learn that when entertaining, an ordinary wine will do for a stand-up affair but people expect much better wines when they're sitting at the dinner table.
Reviewed by Judith Lane, wine and food writer |
