10 Mini Adventures In Food and Wine
Pulling-no-punches opinions on low calorie wine and why I'm obsessed with the galley in reality show Below Deck
I hope you enjoy reading The Sauce as much as I enjoy writing it. This is a reader-supported publication. Your paid subscriptions mean I have the time to research and write about food culture as an independent entity. No #sponcon, just a whole lot of commentary about how food and drink fit into modern society.
I was introduced to Kim Crawford’s low-calorie wine 7% this week and it made me think about the intersection — or lack thereof — between wine and health. My honest opinion? Wine isn’t healthy and that’s OK. We don’t need to truss it up as something it’s not.
By marketing wine as “clean” or “healthy” or “low calorie” we run the risk of a) people drinking far more of it than they should and b) flooding the market with highly manipulated grape-based beverages (they achieve 7% by de-alcoholising part of the wine and blending it back in with the original stuff).
The better option? If you’re going to drink, drink less but drink better quality.
A friend gifted me a book of classic Japanese recipes and it has made me think about the way we eat in the West compared to other cultures. We tend to eat the “Escoffier” way — three courses one after the other. I’ve never been to Japan but the book (and my friend) tells me they eat in a “triangle.” Soup to rice, protein and sides, to pickles and back to soup. It all sounds so beautifully balanced and reminded me that there is scope for different ways of eating (the small plates phenomenon and tapas come to mind).
If nothing else, it shakes up dinnertime.
New York Magazine’s Grub Street recently reported that fried chicken is getting fancy and I have thoughts.
I don’t think chicken tenders need caviar. But I do think there is space in this world for elevated fast food made with quality ingredients that scratch an itch without making you feel like crap.
Just this week I was chatting to a friend who thinks our town (Porto) could do with an elevated fast food joint that also sells great wines á la London’s alas now defunct Bubbledogs and I really want it to happen. Whilst I’ll scarf down KFC with the best of them, I think the humble little chicken (or indeed, any other fast food meat) deserves a little bit more respect sometimes. A little more quality focus. A little more pzazz.
If any of you ever find yourself in Seville, please please visit Manolo Cateca.
I was there just last week. It was my 40th birthday weekend and I spent it with a few friends in Jerez, the birthplace of my favourite things — sherry and flamenco. Seville is the nearest airport and I had a couple of hours to kill before my bus, so off I went to what I call the temple of Sherry,
Owner Manuel stocks hundreds of sherries by the glass, everything from the basics to special bottlings. It really is a sight to see, this tiny bar slinging out some of the world’s finest sherries. I have been in love with this place for close to 10 years and this visit was just as stellar as every other.
Has Michelin lost its way? This was something I thought about whilst I celebrated my birthday with one of the worst dinners I’ve ever eaten. I’m not going to name and shame, but it was a one-star restaurant that botched everything from start to finish. The service was bad. The food ranged from bland to actively disgusting. It felt combative, like the chef was intentionally challenging us every step of the way.
I don’t know about you but I feel like one of the biggest aims of going out to eat — Michelin or otherwise — is to feel nourished and satisfied. Something that chefs sometimes forget in their quest to make everything exciting or different.
There is an inconsistency between Michelin-starred restaurants and I think this is starting to get in the way of a system that you should be able to count on.
My trust in that system is waning.
If you grow tomatoes and you have some that never ripened, I have a recipe for that. Pickled green tomatoes will keep your homemade burgers bright throughout the winter months.
Slice the tomatoes into rounds or half moons and place in a sterilised jar or pot (I use a catering-sized yoghurt pot). Add any aromatics you like — whole peeled garlic cloves, mustard seeds, bay leaves, and / or black peppercorns are a good start.
Heat 3/4 cup (175ml) vinegar (distilled malt, white wine, or cider all work fine) with the same volume of water on a stove. Add two tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of salt. Wait until the mixture comes to a simmer and the salt and sugar have dissolved. Take off the heat and leave to cool before pouring over the tomatoes. Leave for a couple of weeks in the fridge before using.
The most expensive wine in Portugal is €7500 and I can’t even. It came across my desk just this morning via
’s, article Hail Czar! The wine is from the Azores archipelago which is making some excellent wines these days and are admittedly quite pricey thanks to low yields and challenging winemaking conditions. But €7500? That puts this wine into the realm of exceptional Grand Crus from Burgundy. The best of the best as determined by the market.These sort of artificially expensive wines never sit well with me. I’ve seen it happen many times before — pluck a big number out of the air, hope someone will pay, regardless of if the market thinks the wine is worth that price or not. I just don’t think that’s how wine pricing should work.
But like Simon says:
Is it worth €500 – or even €7,500? If you need to ask, you’re probably not in the target market.
I can’t stop thinking about chef Elena Zarakova’s beautiful article The Day I Accidentally Got a Job in a Three-Star Michelin Restaurant.
It reads like something from a movie and is well worth six minutes of your time:
I passed a restaurant. A restaurant in an unassuming building. It sat on the corner. A junction. If I was really reaching, it was symbolic of my predicament. I was at a junction. I did not know which way to go. Yes, I was walking to the station but was not entirely convinced by the idea. I didn’t want to go home. I felt that I was being pushed home by the beautiful arms of Paris. That is the truth.
The restaurant was called L’Arpège.
I walked inside, and a pretty receptionist eyed me up and down. It was one of those looks that made you reassess who you were. What you were doing. Why you were doing it. Twenty-four hours in Paris had given me partial immunity to those looks. I didn’t care.
This was my last hurrah. One last ride.
I’m watching a LOT of Below Deck and whilst all the upstairs shenanigans are entertaining, I would totally watch an all-day feed of the galley. Being a private chef fascinates me anyway (I’ve seen a lot of TikToks on the subject) but on a super yacht, it’s even more interesting. The limited space. The crazy-demanding guests who want late-night turkey subs they never actually eat. How does one person cook three times a day for up to 10 guests AND the crew? The logistics of this will never cease to fascinate me.
Has anyone ever cured their own olives? I picked up two kilos of fresh olives in Spain and now I’m on project. Any advice welcome.
I’ve talked about my friends’ small-batch vinaigrette before and I’m telling you again — if you live in the UK, buy this stuff. It’s gorgeous inside and out and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Selfridges are stocking it and you can buy online at Delli. I’m in awe of anyone who takes a business idea and runs with it and this one is running.
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