Be Sure to See Wine Enthusiast's New Top Wine Restaurant List

Hurray, hurray, hurray – the Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s August 2011 issue will present America’s 100 Best Wine Restaurants.

Not just wines, but the restaurants in which they are perfectly matched with cuisine. At last, a wine list set in the context of enjoyment!

A single glass of wine is always a pleasure, but when served with the appropriate cuisine, dining can become a memorable experience. This is because terroir, unless interpreted in the strictest soil-only sense, is expansive and inclusive.

What makes a wine great is not merely the liquid in the bottle nor the ground in which it grew. It includes the skills of the blender, the cellar master, the marketers, the sommelier and finally, the chef and the supportive restaurant staff.

Each of these talented individuals adds to the clarification of experience that is the essence of meaningful terroir.

Using the creative lists in Wine Enthusiast’s August issue, it’s now easy (and a lot of fun) to locate the stateside restaurants that embrace this more contemporary concept of terroir. Just take a look at their innovative destination titles: 

• Emerging Stars
• Best Blow Your Mind Bottle Collection
• Bragging Rights for Wine Buffs
• Best Dinner and a Show
• Sexy Sips
• Old School Made Cool - Wine Lists with History
• Best Blow Your Mind Bottle Collection
• Superb Saké Programs
• Outstanding Cocktail Programs
• Beer Trailblazers
• Trend Watch: Pop-Ups to Temp
• Restaurant Radar: New & Notable
• Best Bets for BYOB

With topics such as these, is it any wonder that the Wine Enthusiast Magazine has over 700,000 monthly readers.

And this month they have produced another not-to-be-missed issue.

Don't wait to get your copy as this is sure to be a sellout issue. Just be sure to write your name on your office copy as everyone will want to borrow it – the issue is that good. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

Who Will Lead Spanish Cuisine After Ferran’s El Bulli Closes?

After the final dinner is served at El Bulli on July 30^th, the famed Spanish restaurant will close. So sad, sad, sad.

But where one door shuts, another is sure to open.

That new door, what with Ferran’s ‘retirement’ from his legendary kitchen to his new research center, will need to be wide, very wide to accommodate the host of other talented chefs that also call Spain their home.

Just consider:

QUIQUE DACOSTA, Chef at El Poblet (near Valencia)

Known for his edible culinary landscapes, Chef Dacosta is among the chefs favoring the techniques of “la cocina de vanguardia”, the phrase now replacing the much-disliked by all term “molecular gastronomy”. Implementing the skills initially created by Ferran, Chef Dacosta’s dishes include a recreation of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao a la an edible oyster coated with consumable (and oh so beautiful) titanium-silver colored surface.  Even Frank Gehry would be impressed by its stunning appearance.

CARME RUSCALLEDA I SERRA, Chef at Sant Pau (outside of Barcelona), Moments (Barcelona) and Sant Pau de Toquio (Tokyo). 

The holder of a total of six, yes six, Michelin stars, this esteemed chef is surprisingly little known outside of Spain, except in Tokyo where she is greatly admired.  Her creations are delicate, seasonally driven with an appreciation of the fresh and local while never forgetting the impact of presentation. With such an understanding of aesthetics, is it any wonder that her cuisine is honored by the preceptive diner in both Tokyo and Barcelona?     

JOSEAN MARTíNEZ ALIJA, Chef at Nerua (Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao)

Among the most fluent speakers of the adopted ‘art-words’ that enables the ‘vanguardia chefs’ to describe their innovative efforts, it should surprise no one that Chef Alija‘s kitchen is located at the remarkable Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

There, like a traditional artist in his/her studio, he combines and creates the new while capturing the essence of the expression (just like Picasso).

NANDU JUBANY, Chef at Can Jubany (Catalonia)

A “regresar a las raíces” or “return to the roots” believer, Chef Jubany is an advocate of the farm-to-plate model, believing the value of identifiable terroir. Every ingredient in his kitchen has a known source, all free from commercialization and industrialized production. The resulting cuisine is clear, crisp and full of rediscovered delights, often making regional favorites bright and amazingly new again.  

VICTOR ARGUINZONIZ, Chef at Asador Etxebarri (east of Bilbao)

Another “regresar a las raíces” deep roots devotee, Chef Arguinzoniz starts his devotion from the ground up, using not only fresh local ingredients, but also crafting his own flavorful charcoal. Impressive, no?

As a former forest ranger, and though a self-taught chef, no one can question his hallmark grilling expertise. From appetizers to dessert (yes, even his goat milk ice cream brings a smoky flavor to the table), the fiery traditions of the Basque country is always present in his memorable cuisine.

MARI CARMEN VELEZ, Chef at La Sirena (Alicante)

Famous for her focus on seafood, she transforms traditional Spanish dishes honoring both regional recipes and contemporary trends. In a restaurant where only the best is good enough, she is assisted by both her husband as sommelier and her sister, who studied with Paco Torreblanca, as director of pastry.

PACO MORALES, Chef at Hotel Ferrero (between Valencia and Alicante)

Relocating from his famed restaurant in Madrid, The Senzone, Chef Morales is one of Spain’s young chefs who successfully blends traditional techniques and innovative changes within his cuisine.

Clarity matters as much as wonder. Flavors should, according to Chef Morales, never be a mystery but equally magic should never leave the dining experience.

Assisting him in the complete creation of the evening is his wife (and sommelier) Rut Cotroneo, who trained at Heston Blumenthal’s highly honored Fat Duck Restaurant in Great Britain.

XAVIER PELLICER, Chef at Can Fabes (Sant Celoni, Catalonia)

With a father who is Catalan and a mother who is French, is it any wonder that by age 13 Chef Pellicer found the crafting of cakes far more interesting than the solving of calculus equations in the classroom.

An international array of apprenticeships soon followed and enabled him to master both traditional and avant-garde techniques.

As a result, his skills have simultaneously impressed both the strongly anti-Ferran Chef Santi Santamaría as well as the most adventurous of diners.  Not bad Chef!

Working to insure the blending and growth of all these culinary traditions, old and new, is La Real Academia de Gastronomia or The Royal Academy of Gastronomy founded in August of 2010.

Its stated goal is to disseminate and promote the exciting world of Spanish food and wine, while always honoring both history and innovation in Iberia and beyond. 

With the help of such culinary talents as those offered by these amazing new chefs, Spain is sure to continue to delight and amaze us all with flair and flavor!

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2011

What Egypt’s Revolution Can Teach Us About the Meaning of Cuisine

The Future of Terroir, and Terroir of the Future

An Essay by Peter Schlagel 

First, let us praise the power of an impassioned people.  Their common yearning for a better life, an authentic meaningful living shared openly with family and friends that fills their hearts and minds and souls with pride and joy, their iron refusal to suffer further abuse or intimidation, their rising up together to transcend fear and hold their ground – these dramatic courageous recent events in Egypt and Tunisia have inspired people all around the world and forever changed these ancient lands. 

Such is the transforming power of a new vision of a life of freedom in each familiar long-suffering locality, the universal human need to be free to work and create and love and live with family, neighbors, colleagues and countryman, one unique neighborhood, city and country at a time.

Such, also, is the transformed “good ground” and terra firma of a new vision of terroir whose roots reach deep into the rich ground of a living community’s unique heart and soul and local cultural legacy extending beyond place and time and environment.

This new philosophy of hospitality and cuisine, this new vision of “La Vie de Terroir”, has a long and noble ancestry.  We owe a great debt of gratitude to the French who first introduced and popularized the term “terroir” as an ingenious marketing innovation to sell French wines by highlighting its origins from unique local vineyards and chateaus.

Others (notably Spain and Portugal) had developed systems of classification based on local origins, but it was the French advocacy of terroir that proved most successful.  It became so popular that their system of "Appellation d' Origine Controlee" (A.O.C.) came to dominate the making of the finest French wines, Champagne and Cognac.

The actual mix of grape varietals was secondary to the wine’s region of origin.  As fine winemaking took root in new regions around the world (such as North and South America, Australia and South Africa), the particular qualities of new wines in new soils gave birth to entirely new styles of wines expressing the local character of their new cultural and physical terroir.

Along with advances in knowledge about successful practices of growing various wine grapes and scientifically informed techniques of winemaking, the concept of terroir expanded to include all the local variations of time and place, of season and soil. But it is only recently that a new vision of a more complex terroir has begun to take wing, an integrated multi-dimensional terroir whose center of gravity is creative culture rather than physical environment.

From this expanded point of view, it is the rich interplay of local cultural values and master artisan traditions with the particular qualities of local soil, season and sensibilities that gives rise to the highest quality of unique local products grounded in historical cultural conceptions of meaning, excellence and depth.

Thus, while we can speak of the highest standards of French haute cuisine and the best pairings of various superior quality wine styles for each traditional course, we can also envision new styles of quality wines and beverages steeped in other great cultural heritages with profoundly different cuisines and standards of value and excellence.

For example, China (“Our Land”) has one of the world’s oldest and most diverse cultural histories reaching back many thousands of years and encompassing a vast and diverse array of different local peoples, languages, traditions and environments.

Yet the central cultural tradition of a shared community-style meal with all dishes served together on a large communal table does not lend itself easily to the foreign European tradition of sequential courses.  This kind of cultural difference can give rise to new creative additions to an already rich tradition of diverse cuisines, a new terroir of the future.

India, similarly, also has one of the world’s longest and richest cultural traditions including thousands of local variations.  The innovative marriage of modern technical knowledge with local cultural legacies and wisdom gleaned from thousands of years of practical experience can be blended and transformed by the creative choices of great chefs to yield new exciting samples of the art of cuisine as shared gifts from surprising new terroir.

This view of terroir honors its esteemed heritage while extending its depth and range to include new creative meaning grounded in the amazing wide diversity of local practice, culture and standards of value that give shared significance to our common human experience. 

Just as the cultural revolution born from the acts of brave Egyptian people has forever changed the familiar ancient lands around the Nile, so can the creative choices of food artisans, from growers to chefs to those sharing fine meals, forever change the honored traditions of our shared cuisine experiences through the new terroir of the future. 

We are grateful to the 80 million people of Egypt for reminding us that the daily art of cuisine and hospitality we all share and enjoy is made possible by a connected cultural terroir grounded in freedom, respect and civility. We thank you for your courage, your example, and for this great gift of a hard lesson relearned and freely given to our common culinary world.

Your Culinary World copyright Peter Schlagel/Ana Kinkaid 2011