Food & Wine April 2019

Wheels for Meals LAST MONTH my 5-year-old daughter Smith decided to ditch the training wheels on her pink bike, determined to ride free like her big sister. A couple of days of blacktop spills and frustrated tears led to a blur of whirring pedals and big smiles. My girl craves speed and independence, and now she has the freedom to move beyond the safety of our driveway out into a bigger world. Kids deserve to be kids. That’s why this May I’m participating in Chefs Cycle, a three-day, 300-mile endurance ride in Sonoma County, to raise money for children who don’t have the same opportunities as my own. According to No Kid Hungry, the organization behind Chefs Cycle, one in six children will face hunger this year. The $2.4 million fundraising goal…

WHENEVER DON BULL entertains friends at his Virginia home, he invites them to open the wine. If that doesn’t sound like a gracious move, consider this: To uncork the bottle, guests get to pick from Bull’s eclectic collection of wine openers, some of which command thousands of dollars at auction. For Bull, who operates a corkscrew museum out of his home that at one time included 10,000 pieces, the devices are pieces of art and slices of history. It began in the 1970s, when Bull started with three corkscrews. “When I had 100, it was no longer a collection. It was a passion,” he says. “And by the time I had 1,000, it was an obsession.” Over the past two years, Bull has sold about 6,000 pieces. Other than a few special…

FOR THE BIG-BOTTLE ENTHUSIAST Vinotemp Butler Series Dual-Zone Wine Cooler, $1,300, vinotemp.com This medium-sized unit experienced only a half degree of temperature fluctuation every few hours, making it a good option for storing wine for months or even years. It holds nearly four cases of wine, and you can remove shelves to accommodate magnums. FOR THE CASUAL DRINKER Ivation Dual Zone Thermoelectric Wine Cooler, $200, ivationproducts.com Pick this 18-bottle fridge for its clean design and small footprint to class up your daily wine consumption (it’s best for short-term storage given its small but regular temperature fluctuations). With dual cooling zones, it’s great for wine lovers sick of jockeying for space next to the mayo. OUR TOP CHOICE Allavino FlexCount Series Dual Zone Wine Refrigerator, $850, beveragefactory.com HOW WE TESTED A supersensitive SensorPush Bluetooth thermometer provided us with precise…

WINE IN A JUG is a hard sell for many wine drinkers, but what if that jug were a refillable growler from a trusted producer? The idea dates back to 2008, when the state of Idaho discontinued glass recycling, prompting the owners of Pend d’Oreille Winery in Sandpoint to set up the country’s first modern wine refill program as a way to reduce waste. Currently, the winery produces the annual equivalent of 1,500 cases for its refill station. But programs like this do more than boost sustainability; they also slash bottling and labeling costs, and those savings get passed along to customers. So are wine growlers on the rise? Each state has its own regulations, but where it’s allowable, a number of wineries have forged ahead with tap programs, like Burnt…

CHA MCCOY INHERITED her love of food and wine, and all the places they can take you, from her father: “I would be dragged out of school when he had a taste for something, and we’d drive three hours away. Food dictated everything we did in life.” A trained civil engineer who worked in corporate real estate managing multi-million dollar projects, McCoy now runs Cha Squared Hospitality, a lifestyle company with a focus on tourism and gastronomy. She’s also a certified sommelier and hosts a pop-up wine tasting event series called The Communion. Her work centers as much on community and creating a sense of belonging as it does on wine, travel, and getting away. JT: What makes you most excited about wine? CM: I think it’s wine’s power to transport. I’ve…

THE TECHNIQUE PASTA, PERFECT A LITTLE PASTA COOKING LIQUID, a tangle of just-tender noodles, and you’re well on your way to weeknight dinner bliss. But if standard boxed pasta is your go-to, it’s time to take your game to the next level. Artisanal dried pastas (look for “bronze cut” on the label) are now common on grocery shelves and are well worth the switch. Extruded through bronze dies, they have a rough, textured surface that helps sauces cling to the pasta. As an added bonus, the starches that are cast off into the salty pasta cooking water become the foundation of a number of elegant pan sauces, thickening them while suspending fats to help create a creamy emulsion. Whether you choose tubular rigatoni dressed in a chicken liver ragù (p. 32) or…