The Importance of Food and Wine

Over the past year I have spent most of my waking hours either at Potenza trying to dial in our recipes from the Sunday gravy to our house cured meats.  On the road visiting local farms learning about animal husbandry and how some of these local vegetable farmers go about their process.  At Zola Wine and Kitchen teaching cooking classes and starting our quick serve lunch.    And finally at Zola re-doing our menu format and introducing new cooking techniques to our staff.  Needless to say when I have had some time off all I wanted to do is spend time at home relaxing. 

Since doing this I have not been out to dine in quite some time.  Dining out not only stimulates the restaurant scene but it also gives one a chance to sit back with friends and family and lose yourself in their company for a couple hours.  The importance of this is not only the support of our local restaurants but it keeps you up to date on what’s going on in your neighborhood plus it exposes you to many things you may have not tried in the past.  New experiences are great and in my opinion necessary to grow.

Now that Potenza has been up and running for a year, Sous Chef Robbie has  pitching in on our classes and running the lunch at Zola Wine and Kitchen and we are refreshed at Zola so I have a little more time on my hands.  In order to fill this time I start dining again.   Whenever I eat out I always try to eat something I’ve never had or that is prepared in a way that I haven’t seen.  By doing this I’m able to learn more about a product or a chef.  These experiences also give me some insight into what are the most common ingredients on menus so that I can offer something more unique to our guests. 

And then there’s the wine, for the last few years people are preaching beer tastings and pairing beer with food.  This is a fun way to experience food and different hand crafted brews but for me on the more serious side of dining, I need my wine.  First question is how do you choose sparkling, white or red?  The answer is simple and always the same, all of them.  I’m not sure how to forego any of these.  I always start with a glass of sparkling and then dive into a white and of course finish with red.  For most of this I like to live in Burgundy but will venture around the world depending on what is on my plate.  In order to be able to pull this off and not get pulled over on the way home I am always appreciative of the restaurant that offers a large and well thought out half bottle page or simply by the glass for two types and focus on a bottle that you really like for the third. 

All in all food and wine are meant to go together and should be savored with family and friends this is much better entertainment than any movie I’ve ever seen.  Happy Dining to you and remember try something new.

Tags: dining out, food, Potenza Wine