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Ask a Sommelier - Duck and Wine with Daniel's Raj Vaidya

Posted Sep 1st 2009 4:00PM by Pervaiz Shallwani
Filed under: Wine

Raj Vaidya.
Photo: Michael Harlan Turkell

In a career that has included wine jobs at haute dining and wine destinations Per Se, Cru and, since June, the head sommelier at Daniel Boulud's flagship New York eatery Daniel, Raj Vaidya has paired more than his share of his duck with vino.

Born in Jersey, and raised in his parents' native Bombay and Singapore, Raj's wine tutelage began well before he was of legal drinking age, enjoying vino and good food with family and company. It laid the groundwork for post-college (a degree in political science and philosophy from Rutgers University) career in the wine business, where he first started working at New Jersey's Ryland Inn and did time in the biodynamic fields at Robert Sinskey Vineyards in Napa.

As fall quickly approaches, we caught up with Raj to discuss the different elements one needs to consider when pairing wine with all those preparations of this wonderfully fatty, gamey bird, creamy foie gras and bloody duck à la presse.

Continue reading Ask a Sommelier - Duck and Wine with Daniel's Raj Vaidya

Ask a Sommelier - Strawberries and Wine with Chez Panisse's Jonathan Waters

Posted Aug 21st 2009 4:00PM by Pervaiz Shallwani
Filed under: Wine, Fruit, Summer

Jonathan Waters.
Photo: Robert Messick.

Strawberries with wine? It's not a pairing most people ask Chez Panisse sommelier Jonathan Waters about. In fact, he can't remember anyone ever asking him to take the sweet-tart berry -- which has dotted dessert menus for much of the summer -- and combine it with a crisp, ethereal vino. Champagne, yes, but wine, no.

"It's pretty rare that somebody would have strawberries with wine," says Waters (no relation to that other Chez Panisse Waters), who has worked at the restaurant for more than 20 years.

That said, he thinks the two are a very plausible match and was up to the challenge. We caught up with him to chat strawberries, Alice Waters' practice of finishing a meal with seasonal fruit, and his thoughts on organic wine.

Do you guys ever serve whole strawberries?
We do. We serve them at the end of a meal. Alice's idea is that the perfect end of a meal is a fruit. If you have ever read [David Mas] Masumoto's book about peaches ... we only serve strawberries for a very short window because it's a short season when they are perfect.

Does the restaurant serve them other ways?
We serve strawberries with other things for a longer period, like macerated strawberries over sherbet or strawberry shortcake.

Continue reading Ask a Sommelier - Strawberries and Wine with Chez Panisse's Jonathan Waters

Ask a Sommelier - Lobster Rolls and Wine with Arrows' Danielle Johnson Walker

Posted Jul 7th 2009 2:00PM by Pervaiz Shallwani
Filed under: Shellfish, Summer

Danielle Johnson Walker.
Photo: Daniel Doke Photography

When beachgoers dine at the celebrated southern Maine restaurant Arrows and its sister seaside bistro MC Perkins Cove for a ubiquitous lobster roll, it falls to sommelier Danielle Johnson Walker to find an ideal wine to match with what she calls the "lazy man's lobster."

A self-trained sommelier, Walker uses the winter months -- when Arrows is hibernating -- to pair vacations with winery visits throughout South Africa and Europe to add extra oomph to her vino repertoire. As summer kicks into high gear and our hankering for lobster on buttered buns borders on fixation, we quizzed Walker about secret cooking techniques, wines to avoid and what makes lobster rolls so bleeping addictive.

What makes the lobster roll such a great food?
It's the lazy man's lobster. When in Maine, you eat boiled lobster once or twice and after that you have the lobster roll. I don't think it's a food people can get sick of. It's like a good hamburger.

After the jump, the secret the the Arrows lobster roll and why to avoid oaked chardonnays.

Continue reading Ask a Sommelier - Lobster Rolls and Wine with Arrows' Danielle Johnson Walker

Ask a Sommelier - Vegetables and Wine with Ubuntu's Daniel Sarao

Posted Jun 18th 2009 2:00PM by Pervaiz Shallwani
Filed under: Wine, Restaurants

Ubuntu Sommelier Daniel Sarao
Photo: Michelle Branton

At Ubuntu, Napa Valley's acclaimed vegetarian restaurant slash yoga studio, it falls to wine director and general manager Daniel Sarao to find harmony between the lush bounty of on-site gardens and a vino list sparkling with biodynamic sips.

The son of Italian immigrants who taught him an appreciation for wine, Sarao put himself through college and grad school working at restaurants, cutting short a trajectory towards a liberal arts Ph.D. for the life of a full-time oenophile. We chatted with him about the myths around pairing wine with veggies (yes, you can drink red!), the wonders of caramelizing and five inexpensive summer sippers to pair with grilled veggies.

Are you a vegetarian?
I am not a vegetarian. The chef is not a vegetarian and neither is the owner. But we believe that vegetables can stand on their own. We are breaking the stereotype.

How much of what you serve comes from your garden?
Right now we get about 75 to 80 percent of our ingredients from [our garden]. Our goal is to get almost everything from there. It makes an amazing difference. Squash and peppers are [in season] right now.

Learn more, plus five great wines for under $25 to pair with vegetable dishes, after the jump.

Continue reading Ask a Sommelier - Vegetables and Wine with Ubuntu's Daniel Sarao

Ask a Sommelier - Grilled Salmon and Wine with Le Bernadin's Aldo Sohm

Posted May 29th 2009 5:00PM by Pervaiz Shallwani
Filed under: Wine

In just two years as the sommelier and wine director at New York's world-renowned Le Bernardin restaurant, 37-year-old Aldo Sohm has become a wine world heavyweight, having been recognized as "Best Sommelier in the World" in 2008 and earlier this month for "Best Wine Service" at the James Beard Awards. Trained in his native Austria, Sohm came to the United States to improve on his then "dumpy" English so he could better compete at wine competitions. We caught up with Sohm this morning to chat about the unwritten rule of pairing fish with white wine, which vino goes well with grilled salmon and that other reason why he now lives in America.

How did you become a sommelier?

Ever since I was little I had a thing of smelling food and wines. At first I didn't really like wine when I entered the industry. This was [when I was ] 16 or 17. People in the restaurant would ask me what you could recommend and I didn't know and thought this was embarrassing. [Then] I went on a wine trip with my father -- he invited me. I was 20 and I saw it, and it was kind of interesting and just went from there.

You said you moved to the United States to improve your English, but I get the sense there was another reason?

Austrians love to complain. I hate to complain so I figured it is easier to change a country than to change myself.

More about pairing rules -- and how to break them -- after the jump.

Continue reading Ask a Sommelier - Grilled Salmon and Wine with Le Bernadin's Aldo Sohm

Ask a Sommelier - Burgers and Wines with L20's Chantelle Pabros

Posted May 15th 2009 3:00PM by Pervaiz Shallwani
Filed under: Wine, Restaurants, Beef

Chantelle Pabros, a sommelier at Chicago's L20, is widely considered a rising star of the wine universe. Entrenched among oenophiles since leaving high school, at a mere 26 she has worked alongside world-renowned talent including chef Laurent Gras at his seafood-centric eatery. Though Chantelle has few hard and fast rules about pairing wine with food, she offered a couple tips as we head into prime grilling season. We caught up with her this afternoon to talk burgers and vino.

Do you think burgers and wine go together?
Yes, absolutely. Though we don't have burgers [at L20], I like pairing wine with them. There is this place here called Kuma's Corner. We normally drink beer there, but I am thinking about the possibilities of wines with their burgers.

How does one go about pairing the two?
With pairing, things that you think would go well don't always go. It's trial and error. I start by thinking about the classic burger, cooked medium rare with really fresh lettuce, tomato, onion and a really intense mustard.

Chantelle's five under-$25 burger-friendly wines after the jump.

Continue reading Ask a Sommelier - Burgers and Wines with L20's Chantelle Pabros

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Ask a Sommelier - Duck and Wine with Daniel's Raj Vaidya

Ask a Sommelier - Strawberries and Wine with Chez Panisse's Jonathan Waters

Ask a Sommelier - Lobster Rolls and Wine with Arrows' Danielle Johnson Walker

Ask a Sommelier - Vegetables and Wine with Ubuntu's Daniel Sarao

Ask a Sommelier - Grilled Salmon and Wine with Le Bernadin's Aldo Sohm

Ask a Sommelier - Burgers and Wines with L20's Chantelle Pabros

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