A Night of Jazz, Comedy, Truffles and Wine

UPDATE: EVENT CANCELLED!!!

On the evening of December 29th, The Kosher Scene will present A Night of Jazz, Comedy, Truffles and Wine, with proceeds to benefit the Puah Institute. The evening will feature the Sol Yaged Band, Broadway’s David Serero as Master of Ceremonies. David has made his mark as a singer and as a comedian throughout Europe and now in the US. Chef Sara Black will serve us a delightful menu featuring the queen of mushrooms… black truffles!

The Puah Institute, experts in the world of Jewish fertility, is devoted to helping people with fertility, intimacy and genetic challenges fulfill their dreams of building a family. Puah supports thousands through counselling, education and lab supervision to prevent potential human error during fertility treatments. Puah provides couples personal counselling, free of charge, in a sensitive, caring environment al pi halacha.

Please come Monday evening, December the 29th. Doors open at 6:00pm, the show starts at 7:00pm. Come and enjoy great music, great singing, great comedy, great food and great wines, while you help the Puah Institute in its mission to help those who wish to build a family but find themselves unable to. Make your reservations today!

Hope to see you all there,

CS and SYR

Food and Wine Paring in Style

This past Monday, at Millesime in the Carlton Hotel (88 Madison Avenue, between 28 and 29th, in Manhattan) there was a kosher food and wine pairing event. Adam Mukamal, a lawyer with J.P. Morgan Chase, first came up with the idea and immediately enlisted Seth Weiser, from 67 Wine and Spirits, and Nelly Rosenking, from Nelly’s List, event planner extraordinaire.

Many of the top wine distributors were at the event, such as Royal Wine Corporation, Happy Hearts Wine, Allied Importers, Recanati Wines and more. The food was superbly prepared and beautifully presented.

Photos by Tibor Tóth

Food ranged from salmon to beef, to salads, fruit salad and cakes…

The audience fully enjoyed the food and the more than 60 wines…

There were some superb wines that showed how far kosher wine-making has come over the last 20 years; from the laughing stock of the wine world to internationally acclaimed award winning potables in direct competition with the best of the non-kosher world. Among the wines at this pairing there was a whole range spanning from the mid tens to $200 a bottle.

I’ve been to quite a few food and wine pairing events over the years, never have I seen anything quite like this one. Incredible as may sound, the whole thing was planned in a mere three weeks through the herculean efforts of the team under the direction of  genius event planner Nelly Rosenking, who just got back from putting together a similar function for 400 people in Tel Aviv, in roughly the same amount of time.

Great food, great wine, great people, great ambiance, who can ask for more? It just doesn’t get any better than this!

(Next week, be’ezras Hashem, we’ll post our video of this event and more on iFoods.tv‘s brand new kosher channel)

CS

Pairing Food and Wine – Part 2

As we said – in the very first sentence – in the first part of this series, the one true rule of pairing food and wine is that such pairings are highly personal. The ethnic/cultural background and, specifically, the food one grew up with are influential on how taste is perceived by the individual. Someone who eats mostly spicy food will taste wine very differently from someone accustomed to more bland foods..

Photo from: http://www.la2day.com/dining/wino_wednesdays_food_wine_pairing

When you enter the differences of each individual’s taste buds into the equation you can understand that what may be a perfect pairing for one person, may not necessarily be so great to another. Rules are, at best, approximations based on the “average” person (read: “the average connoissseur,” often self-proclaimed, instead). I could find no scientific study ever conducted that definitely showed what is the “average” when it comes to taste matters. What is the point of this series, then, if the rules are subject to each individual’s preferences? That is a fair question! The answer is that all we intend to accomplish – here – is to give you, gentle reader, some departure points as you embark on your very own food and wine pairing journey. Just remember that wine should never overpower the food it accompanies but it should complement it.

Once again, winter has shown itself relentless and bombarded us with another big snowfall. Considering that wine can warm the soul and gladden the heart, considering that medical most studies now find the health benefits in drinking 2 daily glasses of wine (like the French do), isn’t this weather just right for sipping wine, especially if paired with a nice soup?

A street in Brooklyn today... comfort food and wine weather

How about a Chicken Noodle Soup, paired with a Pinot Grigio or a Chennin Blanc? Perhaps a Cream of Chicken Soup with a Sauvignon Blanc or a Viognier would fit your preference? Maybe a French Onion Soup paired with a Beaujolais or a White Burgundy?  Hmmmmnnn, my mouth is watering already!

Since we are only offering departure points here are some favorite pairings:

Fish

Sauvignon Blanc – Light, zesty and citrusy

White Burgundy –  Goes well with salmon

Chardonnay – Perfect for rich fish dishes

Riesling – It’s lime/lemon juice flavor make it a nice complement to any fish dish

Pinot Noir – Yes, it’s a red wine, but try it with grilled fish and see what it does!

Meat

Beef or steak – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Shiraz

Lamb – Bordeaux, or almost any Red wine

Poultry – Chardonnay

Miscellaneous

Fruit – Any Sauternes, Muscat or Riesling (especially Late Harvest)

Very sweet or heavy desserts – I prefer to pair these with a Moscato d’Asti

Pizza – Chianti is the perfect choice!

This does not pretend to be an exhaustive list, it merely reflects pairings I’ve tried and liked.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Pairing Food and Wine – Part 1

Frankly the main rule to remember when pairing food with wine is that one should drink whichever wine one likes with particular food. Having said that there are some basic guidelines to maximize your enjoyment:

DrinkWine.com lists 5 basic rules:

Photo from: http://sipwithme.blogspot.com/

Match the weight & texture of the food to the weight & texture of the wine
Example: A light-bodied fish like sole works best with a light-bodied white wine like pinot grigio, while a heavier-bodied fish like salmon calls for a richer, fuller-bodied white like chardonnay.

Balance the intensity of flavors in the food and wine
Example: A mildly flavored food like roast turkey pairs well with light-bodied white and red wines like sauvignon blanc and Beaujolais, but in the context of a Thanksgiving dinner featuring stuffing, cranberry sauce, and other strongly flavored side dishes, an intensely flavored white like gewürztraminer or a rich, fruity red like syrah or zinfandel would be preferable.

Balance tastes
The five basic tastes are sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami (the recently discovered fifth taste found in savory foods like mushrooms, tomatoes, soy sauce, and aged cheeses and meats). Salty and sour tastes in food make wines taste milder (fruitier and less acidic), while sweet and savory (umami) tastes make wines taste stronger (drier and more astringent).

Example: A simple cut of beef tames the tannins and brings out the fruit of a young cabernet sauvignon, but chocolate (which some people enjoy with cabernet) will accentuate its tannins and diminish its fruit. Seasonings, such as salt, lemon, vinegar, and mustard, can be used to achieve balance in food-wine pairings, either to make the wine taste milder (salt, lemon, vinegar) or stronger (sugar or umami ingredients).

Match flavors
Flavors are combinations of tastes and aromas, and there are an infinite number of them. You can fine-tune food and wine pairings by matching flavors in the food and the wine.

Example: Roast duck in a plum sauce is well-served by red wines, like barbera or syrah, with pronounced black plum flavors while grilled steak in a pepper sauce will go beautifully with a peppery zinfandel.

Counterpoint flavors
Sometimes, the best choice is to counterpoint flavors rather than matching them.

Example: Pairing a spicy dish like Jamaican Jerk Chicken with a high-alcohol red wine may seem logical, but, in fact, the heat in the dish will ignite the alcohol in the wine to produce an unpleasantly hot, harsh impression. A better choice is a low-alcohol, fruity wine like riesling or gewürztraminer, which will both frame and tame the spicy flavors of the dish.

Enjoy your pairings, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS