The greatest food pyramid ever
Two Ventura writers show us how to cook with wine … and so much more
By Stacey Wiebe 11/09/2006
“Come quickly, I am tasting stars!”
— Dom Perignon, upon first tasting champagne, from The Great Wine Pyramid
As someone who lives partly in fear of cookbooks, I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive when The Great Wine Pyramid landed on my desk.
It’s not that I can’t cook. It’s just that there always seems to be something in nearly every recipe I read that doesn’t quite jibe with my gray matter — kind of like algebra, but not quite that scary. Like, what exactly is an aubergine, and how, exactly, does one fold egg whites? Some wonders never cease.
And so it was with absolutely surprised delight that I delved into The Great Wine Pyramid, penned by resident Venturans John and Shari Rudy, co-authors of The Great Chocolate Pyramid. For starters, The Great Wine Pyramid isn’t a cookbook. Sure, it’s chock full of recipes — about 150 of them, to be exact — but it’s also chock-full of cartoons, quizzes, hilarious tidbits and helpful hints. Perhaps most importantly, because it’s written with a relaxed, humorous tone, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and doesn’t alienate potential wine lovers.
This isn’t a book by wine snobs that condescends to the ignorant non-wine snob general public (i.e., people like me, who don’t know squat about wine). The book, which is beautifully illustrated and more interesting to peruse than any cookbook I have ever seen, opens with advice on how to cook with wine, as well as types of wine, learning to taste wine and ordering wine at a restaurant.
“Our first rule of wine tasting is to let your personal preferences guide you,” the Rudys write. “The best wine will be the wine that tastes best to you. In the end, your opinion is the only one that matters.” How refreshing: advice about wine that works for everyone.
The basic thrust of the book is the incorporation of wine in meals from the food pyramid’s food groups: grains, meats and beans, vegetables, fruits and milk, but there is also a delectable desserts section designed to accommodate the sweet tooth, and a miscellaneous section with a few creative extras.
Each recipe is rated according to difficulty via little wine-glass icons near the top of each (one glass means the recipe isn’t too tricky, while five denotes a heftier difficulty rating), and wine is included in each dish. To add yet another layer to this book’s helpfulness, the Rudys dole out plenty of advice on how to pair wines with various dishes and even test the know-how of readers with quizzes ranging from the purely practical to the purely fun — like a great little quiz that asks readers to guess the films from which various wine quotes have been culled. And, yes, the famous “chianti” line from Silence of the Lambs made the cut.
With a vast array of creative dishes, dips and other treats — such as sherry soup, easy cheesy crab spread, glazed duck with plum sauce, chocolate pecan pie, Australian steak Madagascar, port-poached pears with bleu cheese and sinful chocolate cake with syrah fudge sauce — there’s a little something here for everyone’s taste buds.
Copious cartoons by Bob Johnson and feature graphics by Betty Tuininga ensure that the reader is never bored. In short, even if you don’t care about wine or cooking, this book will entertain and make you laugh. If you do happen to care about wine and/or cooking, the Rudys will assuredly add to your store of knowledge with their compilation of recipes, historical information and grab bag of wine-related trivia.
For instance, did you know that Elvis Presley wines, by Graceland Cellars — including Jailhouse Red and Blue Suede Chardonnay — can be found in retail stores across the nation? Or that white wine is made by removing the juice from the skin, which is why white wine has no tannins? Well, I didn’t — but I learned it from this book. Thirty-five wineries contributed recipes for publication in the book, while the Rudys used about 70 of their own. Ventura County contributors include 71 Palm and the California Wine Club.
A few pages into Pyramid, I got the feeling that John and Shari Rudy genuinely want me to have fun cooking with wine and expanding my culinary horizons. Sure, I haven’t met them and they may not care at all, but my perception — framed partly by the fact that their book is so full of good cheer — is that they really do.
In that spirit, I’ll leave you with another quotable gem from the Rudys’ excellent book: “Asked when she drinks champagne, Madam Lilly Bollinger replied, ‘I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it — unless I’m thirsty.”
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT