Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2024 i Food & Wine

2018 IDLEWILD LOST HILLS RANCH NEBBIOLO ($60) Every wine that Sam Bilbro makes at Idlewild Wines, his small but mighty Mendocino County winery, derives from his long-held passion for Italian grape varieties, and all of them are both thought-provoking and excellent, too. This intensely fragrant, spicy Nebbiolo (the grape of Barolo) is just one example. NV LARMANDIER-BERNIER LATITUDE EXTRA BRUT ($70) Need a stellar Champagne for holiday drinking? Pierre Larmandier was an organic and biodynamic pioneer in the region, and his steely, super-focused wines are stellar, year in and year out. Latitude is citrusy, taut, and complex, and a joy to drink. (The winery’s Longitude bottling is equally impressive.) 2020 CHÂTEAU DE BEAUCASTEL CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE ($105) I was fortunate enough to pour Beaucastel’s 2009 vintage at our Gather Charleston event…

MY FIRST MENORAH was made of silvery metal that tarnished in what felt like minutes. It had teeny painted animals aboard Noah’s Ark attached with flimsy metal rings. What Noah’s Ark has to do with Hanukkah escapes me now, but that menorah was a fixture at my family’s table. Now that it’s tucked away in my mom’s cabinet, I’ve invested in a menorah of my own—one with a design that feels up to date, but whose warm candlelight still evokes my childhood memories of sufganiyot and crispy latkes. Below you’ll find five of my favorite, thoroughly modern menorahs. 1. JUDAICA STANDARD TIME X B. ZIPPY MENORAH Made of nine individual modular, earthenware pieces, this menorah by artist Bari Ziperstein was made to be played with. ($200, judaicastandardtime.com) 2. STYLE UNION…

Cornflake-Crusted Fried Chicken Drumettes ACTIVE 1 HR 20 MIN; TOTAL 1 HR 30 MIN SERVES 12 The bone of meaty chicken wing drumettes creates a playful, lollipop-like handheld appetizer to serve with bubbly. As Wrigley Mansion CEO and Wine Director Jason Caballero recommends, amp up the crunch factor with crisp cornflakes. Start with whole cornflakes, and crush them using a rolling pin for a mix of small crumbs and larger pieces. For ultimate crispiness, we recommend frying the chicken, but you can bake the drumettes as an alternative (see Note). 24 small chicken wing drumettes (about 3 lb.)3½ tsp. kosher salt, divided, plus more to taste1½ tsp. black pepper, divided6 cups cornflake cereal (about 6½ oz.), crushed1 tsp. garlic powder½ cup all-purpose flour (about 2⅛ oz.)3 large eggs, beatenCanola oil,…

THE FESTIVE SEASON is no time for restraint, so why hold back? There is nothing more celebratory than a Baroque bowl of punch to welcome guests with flair. By using flavorful cocktail bases and copious quantities of garnishes, which not only add flavor but also holiday-themed adornment, you can turn your punch bowl into a liquid cornucopia. Move that standing rib roast aside: These drinks are fit for a centerpiece. I love punches for entertaining because they can be made ahead of time, which lets you focus on prepping (read: nibbling on) appetizers and the rest of the spread. Prepare the punch base (all the ingredients except the bubbly ones) a few hours ahead, and keep it chilled until your guests are about to arrive. When it’s nearly showtime, put…

A FUN FEAST On board Virgin Voyages’ fleet, passengers can choose from more than 20 restaurant venues, including many cuisines not traditionally showcased on ships, such as Korean (where guests can grill pork belly and learn to play Korean drinking games at Gunbae) or the Mexican-themed Pink Agave, which prompts indulgence in seared shrimp mole and multiple mezcals. This year’s fleet-wide Eat & Drink Festival was a smashing success; look for upcoming dates for an amped-up two-month extravaganza in 2024, with guest chefs. (12-day Maori & Australian Shores from $2,425, virginvoyages.com) S.A.L.T. TO TASTE The newest ultra-luxury ship from Silversea, Silver Nova, was christened this past summer. Its game-changing asymmetrical design emphasizes open spaces and sweeping ocean views, both of which are embodied in a new alfresco restaurant, The Marquee, as…

THE MOMS START WITH THE FOOD that feels most unfamiliar. In the case of Kathy, chef Katianna Hong’s Irish Catholic mother, that usually means piling her plate with kimchi. For Jessica, chef John Hong’s Korean American mom, there’s no better way to break a health-conscious routine than with cheesy cornbread casserole. Katianna and John, who are married and own the restaurant Yangban in downtown Los Angeles, started a tradition four years ago of gathering their family to celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, and Lunar New Year all in one—in a feast that pays homage to their diverse heritages. Sometimes, they open their home; other times, they close down the restaurant. Always, they cook up a spread vast enough for gochugaru to coexist with nutmeg. This year, Katianna’s brother, Reid, is in attendance with…

For those who think of rice as plain and boring—well, there isn’t a grain of truth to that idea. In reality, rice is a pantry powerhouse, highly versatile and immensely receptive to anything you might like to throw at it. If you’re stumped by what to make for dinner or stuck in a cooking rut, putting rice at the center of your plans (rather than just to the side of your plate) can be your key to opening the door to meals that are new and exciting but still easy enough to pull off on a weeknight. Globally, rice is a mainstay—it’s the primary food staple for more than 50% of the world’s population. But while eating rice may be a cornerstone for sustenance, preparing it—and doing so well—is a…

There is an enemy lurking in your spice cabinet. Not the cream of tartar—leave her out of this. Not even the mysterious spice blend that has been there forever and is now probably mostly dust but you can’t throw it out because your uncle made it, and it’s the only thing he uses when he visits. No, this enemy is far more insidious and, I regret to say, omnipresent. It is irritating. It is legion. It is the terrible plastic doohickey that they put on the top of your bottle of spices. The technical term for these unbelievably irritating contraptions is the “sifter cap.” It’s the little round piece of plastic with holes in it that allegedly allows you to shake a small amount of spices into your dish without…

Your home bar holds the secret to upgrading weeknight dinner. Whether it contains just a bottle or two or a full panoply of spirits and liqueurs, your liquor cabinet can be a source of easy upgrades to everyday cooking. The same flavors and aromas you might savor when sipping a cocktail are amplified and dispersed throughout food as it’s cooked. Despite alcohol’s relatively low boiling point (173°F compared to water’s boiling point of 212°F), food scientist Harold McGee notes that “it’s impossible to cook out all of the alcohol [in a dish].” As it cooks and some molecules evaporate, the initial burn associated with drinking alcohol will lessen and in some cases almost completely dissipate (depending on the length of cooking), but the flavors of the spirit will remain and…

A Gift for You A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS ISSUE: Our crackerjack team here at Food & Wine created the first half of this magazine with stories designed to elevate your holiday cooking and to carry you through the busy feasting season. From gift and wine recommendations to rigorously tested recipes to feed a crowd, we’ve got you covered, starting with the dreamy Caramelized White Chocolate Pavlova (recipe p. 68) on the cover and finishing with a lavish holiday menu from 2018 F&W Best New Chef Katianna Hong and John Hong. Flip the issue over and you get a whole different can of tomatoes—literally—with “52 Recipes to Make This Year.” A cookbook of sorts, it will carry you into 2024 with inspirations for weeknight cooking when you’re craving big flavors…

RESTAURANT EDITOR KHUSHBU SHAH sat down with judge Gail Simmons, two-time winner Buddha Lo, two-time contestant Tiffany Derry, and judge, winner, and soon-to-be host Kristen Kish at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen to talk about the legacy of Bravo’s Top Chef. Khushbu Shah: I want to kick off with a light, gentle question. How do you think the show has changed the definition of being a chef and how people perceive what it is to be a chef? Gail Simmons: When we started, I was working for Food & Wine, running the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Bravo came to us to partner on the show, and it sparked our imagination. Food & Wine has always been trying to dis-cover new talent, and this was a…

THIS IS THE ULTIMATE WINEGLASS Kurt Zalto is inarguably one of the world’s best glassware designers. After being pushed out of the company that still bears his family name by outside investors, he turned right around and founded Josephinenhütte, borrowing the name from a famed German glassworks of the 19th century. The first time I saw his new universal glass, with its distinctive shape, I thought, “Well, that’s … unusual looking.” Then I picked it up, felt how beautifully balanced it was, tasted through a number of different wines with it, and thought to myself, “Dang, this may be the best wineglass I’ve ever held.” After rigorously balancing, swirling, and sipping from 24 different wineglasses, the glassware testers at the Food & Wine Test Lab agreed, giving the Josephinenhütte #2…

EVERY TIME THE CHURCH BELL IN SAMPIGNY-LÈS-MARANGES TOLLS THE HOUR, RATAPOIL STARTS SINGING. Ratapoil is Talloulah Dubourg and Hugo Mathurin’s black Labrador, and his response to the bell, even down in Domaine de Cassiopée’s small basement cellar, is a kind of operatic ululation, gorgeous albeit slightly eerie. “He’s named for this estate we like in Jura,” Mathurin explains. “Their wines are totally bizarre, but when you get a good one, they’re delicious.” Ratapoil, done with singing and uninterested in the origins of his name, comes and sits on my foot. Dubourg and Mathurin are the young owners of Domaine de Cassiopée, which they founded in 2020. I was visiting them not just because their wines are lovely, but because they’re representative of a new generation of Burgundy producers who are…

Canned tomatoes aren’t second-class citizens. Growing up, I ate many a canned green bean, cling peach (in heavy syrup!), and mushy serving of canned “petits pois.” Those fruits and vegetables are indeed poor iterations of their fresh originals, but a canned tomato is a different story—it has integrity and its own identity. While you can’t really make a salad using a canned tomato, you can achieve all manner of other deliciousness. Coaxing canned whole tomatoes into the shape and size you want can be a bit sloppy, but you can mitigate the mess with the following strategies. When all you need is slightly smaller pieces: Break the whole tomatoes up while they’re still in the can. Either take a sharp knife and slice through them several times, or use your…

My father is an American cook in that quintessential sense of boundlessness. Although his parents, by way of Newark, New Jersey, are of Ukrainian Jewish stock, his repertoire ricochets across the map, encompassing golden brown veal cutlets with an anchovy-caper sauce, stir-fries of beef and broccoli, and lattice-crusted apple pie perked up with ginger juice. He is an entirely self-taught cook who developed his skills by leafing through cookbooks and cutting recipes out of newspapers. One of my favorites in our family dinner rotation was what we called “pearl pork balls.” The name referred to the shaggy, pearlescent coat of sticky rice that formed around each small meatball after they were steamed until fluffy in bamboo baskets. He originally got the recipe out of Mrs. Ma’s Chinese Cookbook by Nancy…

Let’s spill the beans on one of the kitchen’s best-kept secrets: dried beans. These little powerhouses are culinary gems that don’t always get their chance to shine. But they’re affordable, versatile, and packed with flavor, and they offer better textures than their canned counterparts. The notion that dried beans need an overnight soak to reduce cooking time has, in the past, immediately eliminated them as an option for Monday-to-Friday cooking for many home cooks. But while soaking dried beans does have some benefits (namely, it aids digestion by breaking down complex sugars and also helps to reduce phytic acid, which makes it easier for your body to absorb nutrients), it’s not a necessary step. The time that soaking beans in advance shaves off the overall cook time can be so…

BEEF WELLINGTON “WHEN I WAS IN CULINARY SCHOOL, I counted down the days until we made—and, most importantly, got to eat—a classic beef Wellington,” says Sean Brock, chef and owner of four Nashville restaurants, including Audrey. “Every time I slice into one, I go back to being that fascinated teenager from Appalachia.” For Brock, the extravagant spirit of the food of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (a time of evolution for beef Wellington) compels him to dig into the complexities and challenges of the iconic dish. “Beef Wellington is the perfect starting point to understanding this difficult cuisine,” Brock says. “It requires repetition to get good. I love that.” Brock’s Petite Beef Wellingtons are an even better beginning for the home cook. Brock starts with four-ounce tenderloin steaks…

Molasses and Ginger Spice Cake ACTIVE 30 MIN; TOTAL 3 HR 40 MIN SERVES 10 The batter for this tender cake is made entirely in a blender. Cookbook author Jennifer Latham combines fresh ginger, molasses, and warm spices to create an effortless and versatile gingerbreadlike cake that can be dressed up for dessert or served unadorned with coffee or tea. The cake batter is relatively thin, so be sure to wrap the springform pan in aluminum foil and place on a rimmed baking sheet to prevent any drips. Baking spray1 cup boiling water¾ cup chopped peeled fresh ginger, preferably young ginger (see Note)1 cup granulated sugar1 cup canola oil1 cup unsulfured dark molasses2 tsp. baking soda½ tsp. kosher salt2 large eggs, at room temperature2 cups all-purpose flour (about 8½ oz.)1…

Today, American food stores are packed with global pantry products. Shops that once catered to immigrant cooks are gaining wider audiences. And when local stores are lacking, the internet delivers, offering unparalleled access to ingredients from around the world. The process took nearly 250 years, but for cooks today, our country is not so much a melting pot as a global-pantry-palooza. Many of the traditional high-flavor ingredients of the global pantry evolved to solve a universal problem: spoilage. Cooks fought back; they dried, salted, smoked, sugared, fermented, or otherwise preserved everything. Fish and salt fermented into fish sauce. Fruit turned into complex vinegars. Soybeans became soy sauce and miso. These evolved into the prized flavor accents of the great cuisines of the world. With all the currents of history—migration, war,…