Food & Wine July 2020

2016 ALLEGRINI LA GROLA ($40) Recently I tasted the 2010 vintage of this dark, spicy Italian red, and it was just superb. Kudos to Allegrini for making a wine that tastes great on release (witness the ’16), can also age in the cellar, and doesn’t cost a fortune. (And for $19 or so, also check out their very good Palazzo Della Torre red). 2017 MONTINORE ESTATE PINOT GRIS ($18) Montinore, in Oregon, is one of the largest biodynamic grape growers in the U.S. So not only is this white very tasty, with its zippy lemon and luscious white peach notes, you can drink it knowing that not a single synthetic pesticide, fertilizer, or weed killer ever touched the land and grapes it came from. TEREMANA BLANCO TEQUILA ($30) Earlier this year I got to taste…

The Way Forward WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST about restaurants right now? I miss the anticipation, the hum, the smells, the glow. I miss how restaurants restore me, whether it’s tacos at a picnic table after a five-and-a-half-hour flight to LAX or a dozen oysters at the counter of my local after work. Most of all, I miss the hospitality of restaurant people, their generosity. This spring, I witnessed that big-hearted spirit more than ever, as food industry leaders met the pandemic with acts of heroism: Chefs turned their restaurants into community kitchens; spirits manufacturers distilled hand sanitizer in addition to vodka. Thousands came up with new business plans literally overnight (including F&W deputy editor and café owner Mel Hansche—read her story on p. 71). Yet in spite of all the scrappy innovation,…

THE ORGANIZERS By banding together to form coalitions, these chefs created systems of solidarity and support that are destined to outlast the pandemic. AS COVID-19 DECIMATED BUSINESSES from coast to coast, chefs asked the same question: “Now what?” In Nashville, finding the answer started with a group text from Butcher & Bee chef Bryan Lee Weaver that grew to include chefs from all over the city, including 2018 F&W Best New Chef Julia Sullivan, who formed a coalition: Tennessee Action for Hospitality. “We launched a website to share our immediate needs so people could send a letter asking Tennessee congressmen, senators, and the governor to listen,” Sullivan says. “Within the week, we had over 4,000 people reach out.” TAH is just one of the many coalitions that formed to help the industry…

“WHAT I LOVE ABOUT GALETTES is that they’re so user-friendly,” says chef Katie Button, BNC class of 2015. “No matter how you fold or crimp them, they always look beautiful; in fact, the more rustic they look, the prettier they seem to be.” Button’s easy-to-make galette dough bakes into a flaky crust with a crisp bottom thanks to a high initial baking temperature, which is then lowered to finish cooking the jammy filling. Summer Peach and Blackberry Galette ACTIVE 25 MIN; TOTAL 4 HR 20 MIN SERVES 8 1½ cups all-purpose flour (about 6⅜ oz.), plus more for work surface⅓ cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided¾ tsp. kosher salt, divided10 Tbsp. unsalted butter (5 oz.), chilled and cut into small cubes4 to 5 Tbsp. ice water, divided2 Tbsp. cornstarch1 lb. peaches, peeled…

SOMETIMES IT TAKES a large issue to put a small issue into perspective. Take the ongoing wine-world battles about natural versus conventional wine. This sometimes vitriolic black-and-white commentary, which can be boiled down to “natural wine is flaw-ridden mouse-cage-smelling crap” versus “conventional wine is chemically steroided soulless corporate garbage,” really started to seem a bit … oh, beside the point back when the coronavirus upended everything in March. The basic tenets behind natural wines are essentially organically grown grapes and as little intervention as possible—no fining, no filtering, no commercial yeast, no mechanical harvesting, and minimal or no sulfur. They run the gamut from clean and pristine to cloudy and in-your-face funky. Some people find them a near-religious calling; some feel they are a threat to everything they consider to be…

LOS ANGELES TACO STAND SERVING UP LIFE-ALTERING TORTILLAS VIA SONORA AND BAJA CALIFORNIA WHY WE LOVE THEM Under a tent in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood, Julia Silva makes tortillas so supple they’ll ruin any other version for you. At her side is taquero Walter Soto, who cooks up equally glorious fillings like sumptuous birria de res, made from beef stewed in Tecate beer, and creamy pinto beans. THEIR PIVOT El Ruso was just hitting its stride when the pandemic shut down Los Angeles: Soto was whipping up tacos six days a week for a steady crowd that included a few Hollywood celebrities, and they’d recently finished a new seating area across from the grill and comal. El Ruso may not be able to extend the same hospitality to customers as it did before, but…