By David Shankbone (Shankbone) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
By Charles Haynes (Charles Haynes’ flickr account) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
By David Sifry (Alice Waters at dinner – 9722.jpg) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Celebrity chefs are in your face almost everywhere these days from cookbooks to reality TV shows. Wonderful to look back to the times when chefs really lived the simpler true culinary life. The New Yorker magazine has produced over the years some excellent pieces on the lives of chefs. They have released a “Double Take” collection on October 11, 2014 of six earlier insightful stories on Julia Child “Good Cooking” (1974), Alice Waters “The Millennial Restaurant” (1998), Anthony Bourdain “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” (1999), Mario Batali “The Secret of Excess” (2002), David Chang “Chef on the Edge” (2008), and Grant Achatz “A Man of Taste” (2008). You can read these and enjoy them here.

Do you have a chef story? Do you have a preferred chef?

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By Joseph Temple

Next Friday is Halloween!  And if you’re handing out candy to all the trick or treaters knocking on your door, you might want to consider putting aside some of your sugary stash for later.  That’s because we’ve concocted ten wine pairings in our labratory to go with your all-time favorite sweets.  Of course, if you have any additions, post your own graveyard smash in the comments section.  Enjoy!
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By Windell H. Oskay from Sunnyvale, California, United States (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

1. Red Licorice and Pinot Noir
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2. Chocolate Wafer Bars and Malbec
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3. Peanut and Caramel with Grenache
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4. Coconut Dark Chocolate and Syrah
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5. Caramel Squares and Port
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6. Milk Chocolate and Moscato
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7. Peanut Butter Cups and Chardonnay
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By liz west [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

8. Candy Corn and Sparkling Wine
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9. Fruity Candies and Riesling
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10. Chocolate Covered Raisins and Muscat
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Uri Tours (uritours.com) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Question:  What are your thoughts Sid on pairing craft beer with food?

Answer: Just go with the potato chips and beer nuts. Just kidding! Craft beers are a strong market and often the beverage of choice particularly with the younger crowd. Having a beer seems to be a more casual relaxed and less intimidating activity for them than the more formal wine service. Small independent traditional microbreweries continue to explore different experimental brews so there is always a brand new one to try. Craft beers are very diverse from dry to sweet and subtle to assertive – just like wine. Certainly quality craft beers can work very well with different foods – especially where you want to refresh your palate with a gulp. Wine is more suited to sipping and consuming less liquid volume but this is only a generalization. Some craft beers now are nearly the same alcohol as wine and in the same 750 ml size bottle. Be open minded and experiment yourself as to how you enjoy craft beers with food. There is a lot to learn.

Also check out the dinner party fare served with beer at www.brooklynbrewery.com/blog.

I participated with their Brew Master Garrett Oliver in a competition where chefs prepared the same food for both beer and wine pairings. The large audience vote was for beer but many of the dishes were quite hot spicy and BBQ styled. Tomorrow they are matching beer with sustainable seafood including oysters. I already know that I prefer top Chablis with that matching!

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Which cruise line offers the best food? This question is no longer an oxymoron! Not just the Buffet Table now. Since Norwegian Cruise Lines first started providing specialty restaurant choices at sea this concept really has taken off. Many lines now offer this. Perhaps the most well known one is Oceania with their Executive Culinary Director the renown Chef Jacques Pepin orchestrating top French Cuisine on the Marina. There are lots of others to choose from including Silversea (Relais & Chateau Le Champagne), Celebrity on Silhouette and improved Disney. Even Carnival “Fun Ships” & Royal Caribbean are battling it out for the best burger at sea. Smaller ships like Seabourn and Windstar offer outstanding culinary standards with wonderful service.

All this was brought to mind yesterday when I was invited on a Crystal Cruises preview 3 hour cruise in Vancouver with good friend talented Chef Darren Brown www.chefdbrown.com. He has an impressive resume of Executive Chef positions including Fairmont Pacific Rim and was the personal chef for Merv Griffin on a mega-yacht. He is leading a 12 day Mediterranean Tour on the refurbished Crystal Serenity October 25, 2015 roundtrip from Monte Carlo through Italy and Barcelona with daily market shopping and cooking on board. Should be an interesting amazing culinary adventure I highly recommend. Crystal also are proud of their specialty Silk Road “Nobu” Matsuhisa & Prego Piero Selvaggio Valentino restaurants on board.

What has been your most memorable food experience on a ship? Which Cruise Line would you recommend for high culinary standards?

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Question: What’s the best way to cool wine quickly?

Answer: Always seems to be a continuing interest in this topic. I ponder why aren’t you following the Scout Motto of “Be Prepared” using some cold bottles already in your frig.  However I understand there are occasions where you need to act quickly. I explored related temperature issues in two posted IWFS blogs last year on July 22 “Best wine serving temperatures” & on September 2  “Tricks to improve wine temperature service”. I usually wrap the bottle in an ice pack and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes. Don’t forget you put it there! Better and even faster is filling a bucket with ice and just adding cold water – even colder and more efficient if you add some salt. If you have already poured the wine into a glass you might use CoolBlues Reusable Ice Cubes, Whiskey Stones, Wine Pearls or the like to bring down the temperature without diluting the wine. Not a bad idea to keep some frozen red and white grapes in your freezer and pop one or two of them in the glass to cool the wine as well as being a fun conversation stimulant.

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