Food & Wine January 2021

what ray’s pouring now

2016 LA CAPILLA RIBERA DEL DUERO CRIANZA ($33) Want a quick trip to Spain? This Ribera del Duero will take you there. The dark, sweet blueberry and black currant fruit; vanilla notes from oak; and warm earthiness feel inarguably Spanish to me—put out a plate of jamón Ibérico and some good Manchego, and bienvenido a España. 2019 PENFOLDS BIN 311 CHARDONNAY ($40) At a tasting in late 2020, I was blown away by the interplay of succulent fruit and minerality (think wet stones and light brininess) in this cool-climate Chardonnay from Aussie mainstay Penfolds. It’s beautiful now, but I predict it will also age well for a decade or so. 2017 NAPANOOK ($60) Bordelais vintner Christian Moueix’s Dominus is one of California’s greatest Cabernets. Napanook, the winery’s more affordable second wine, is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon,…

editor’s letter

Swipe Right “EXCUSE ME, SON,” said a regal older woman in the checkout aisle, pointing to my cart. “What kind of bread is that?” “Naan,” I said. “A kind of Indian flatbread.” “May I ask how you will use it?” “With a chicken curry. It’s great for sopping.” “Oh, honey,” she replied with a rueful laugh. “Don’t nobody know about soppin’ anymore.” We ended the conversation abruptly to keep the line moving. Still, days after, her statement haunted me. Was sopping truly a dying art? I started talking to some of my chef friends, asking them if they, like me, swiped torn bread around the bottom of a bowl to collect what deliciousness a spoon could not. Sopping, according to my polling, is not a generational thing. It is a universal act, and especially so during…

leftovers get a leg up

WHEN MATT JOZWIAK, formerly a cook at pedigreed restaurants including Eleven Madison Park and Noma, staged in France, he was amazed by how fine-dining kitchens effortlessly exhausted their ingredients: Fennel branches were used to smoke salmon; salmon bones were carefully scraped for tartare—nothing was wasted. Back home in the United States, by contrast, food waste was commonplace—70 billion tons of food went to landfills each year. Certain there must be a better way, Jozwiak launched Rethink in 2017, collecting excess food from restaurants, grocery stores, and corporate kitchens to create meals for those in need. While 2020 proved a thin year for silver linings in the hospitality industry, Jozwiak saw a chance for his nonprofit to give restaurant employees the work and dependable revenue they desperately needed, while tackling rising food…

comfort me with citrus

IF YOU OPEN A PACKAGE of fruit I have sent or delivered, you are consenting to the conditions of Official Fruit Time (OFT), which are that any time you engage with the fruit, you may not work, listen to the news or any other programming, or scroll through social media; you must only be present with the fruit. Violation of these terms means that I will present you with no further offerings. That will suck for you because I give really good fruit—most recently mangosteens and lychees, chosen for their intense deliciousness and their precious seasonality. Lest we bury the lede under a heap of legalese: If I’m sending you fruit, it’s because I’m trying to take care of you. But I’m trying to take care of myself, too, which is…

mixer makeover

TAKE A LOOK at your liquor collection. Chances are, each bottle earned its spot by dint of craftsmanship and flavor. Now, consider your choices when it comes to premade mixers: cranberry juice, margarita mix, ginger ale—they’re typically packed with juice concentrates or artificial flavoring. Combining them is like investing in one of those fancy electric toothbrushes your dentist is proud of you for using, only to brush with corn syrup instead of toothpaste. Tired of seeing beautiful spirits sullied with mass-market counterparts, Columbia Business School classmates Denetrias “Dee” Charlemagne and Alex Doman recently launched Avec to rethink the premade cocktail mixer category “along modern values,” using high-end ingredients and minimal additives and sugars. Charlemagne comes from an advertising background, while Doman worked as a consultant for food and beverage companies across…

the new cleanup crew

FOR A CLEAN START to the new year, we’re trading in the usual suspects under our kitchen sinks for newcomers that are free of parabens and potentially harmful chemicals such as phosphates. Nearly all of them are refillable, meaning less single-use plastic, and while they sadly won’t do the dishes or scrub the counters themselves—yet—the environment, and your health, will thank you for using them. FOR THE STOVETOP On first sniff, it’s easy to confuse Veles’ all-purpose spray for a high-end candle. Made with chemical compounds derived from food waste, it’s our new weapon for eliminating the grime between burners. ($20, veles.com) FOR BAKING SHEETS AND GLASSES Blueland’s dish powder scrubs baking sheets with ease, and Deputy Editor Melanie Hansche’s wine glasses were “literally gleaming” after one wash with their dish tablets. ($18-$20, blueland.com) FOR…