TorontoWine.Com

your guide to wine in the city

Food & Wine

This page has five sections:

• Matching Principles
• Find The Right Wine
• Food & Wine Cookbooks
• Party Planning
• TV & Radio 

Visit the Restaurants and Wine Bars page if you'd like somebody else to do the work, whether it's cooking or pouring.

Matching Principles 

1. Match the weight of the wine to the weight of the dish, the weight being the substance or heaviness found in both.
2. Match a wine to the most predominant taste on the plate.
3. Balance the texture of the dish with the wine.  Keep in mind the flavours of both the dish and the wine and how they can react together.

f you want to read more on the general principles of food and wine matching, see below for some useful articles and also visit Ottawa based Natalie MacLean's website. 

• Matching Food and Wine by David Rosengarten
  
• Food and Wine by Sainsburys
  
• The Happy Marriage of Food and Wine by Robin Garr
  
• Food and Wine by Winematch

Find The Right Wine

If you have a particular dinner in mind, and you want to know the best wine for it, The Food Network has a very useful summary showing what foods go best with each major grape. For more detailed information, try Robin Garr's Wine Lovers' site, Nancy MacLean, or The Internet Wine Guide

Food & Wine Cookbooks

Looking for a gift  for your favourite cook.  Here are two starter suggestions.  On your left, The Wine Lover's Cookbook by Sid Goldstein.  On your right, "The Wine Lover Cooks" by Tony Aspler and Kathleen Sloan, published by MacMillan Canada .  

Another author to check out is UK based Fiona Beckett who has weekly wine and food columns in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.   She is a contributing editor to Decanter, writes regularly for BBC Good Food and has appeared on television and radio.  Try "How to match Food and Wine" or "Eating & Drinking: An A to Z of Great Food & Drink Combinations, both published by Mitchell Beazley.  

Still another is Andrea Immer, one of the USA's leading wine educators, and one of only 13 women in the world who have been appointed Master Sommelier by the prestigious Court of Master Sommeliers.  Andrea was named Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional by the James Beard Foundation in 2002, and was selected by Bon Appetit Magazine as Wine & Spirits Professional of The Year in 2004.  Check out "Great Tastes Made Simple" or "Everyday Dining with Wine.

Best bets for buying food & wine books over the counter are Indigo/Chapters (various locations), The Cookbook Store at 850 Yonge St, or the World's Biggest Bookstore at 20 Edward Street.  For online acquisition, visit Amazon.com (The link is to Books / Cooking, Food & Wine / Drinks & Beverages / Wine / Food & Wine) and type in the name of the book or author in the search box.  If you just want to browse, click on "More Top Sellers" to get a listing of the 25 most popular titles.  Several of these are food related. 

Party Planning

Do It Yourself:  If you are a do-it-yourselfer, the rule of thumb for calculating wine consumption at a food/wine function is to allow 1/2 a bottle per person.  I recommend a 50/50 red/white split in summer and a  60/40 red/white split for the rest of the year.  However the type of food selected may alter the equation.  Hormel Foods is an excellent reference for the purchase of various types of appetizers, and Kendall Jackson have a good entertainment planning guide under the Wine & Food category

Outsource:  If the thought of organizing your function is giving you nightmares, there are various experts in and around the Toronto area, who would be happy to step into the breach.

Richard Kitowski and Jocelyn Klemm, a.k.a. The Wine Coaches, are certified sommeliers who specialize in providing customized wine-themed events to groups of all sizes.

Both Richard Best, The Frugal Oenophile, and Edward Finstein, The Wine Doctor, can provide customized wine tastings, based on your specifications

TV & Radio

The Thirsty Traveler is a travel series with a twist!  Kevin Brauch, the host, chronicles a weekly journey into the heart of the world's greatest wine, beer and spirit producing regions including rich stories, colourful characters and a culinary epiphany or two.  It explores the intimate relationship between local people and their favorite alcoholic libations and revels in marvelous foods, stunning landscapes, unforgettable people and fine traditions steeped in customs dating back thousands of years.   You can find the show on Food Network Canada and on Fine Living Network

GrapeRadio is a radio show discussing wine related topics that is broadcast over the Internet and retrievable by you using podcast technology - see below.  One or two shows are produced on a weekly basis. The shows consist of the three hosts sharing their opinions and experiences with the audience. Show topics review issues such as the enjoyment of wine, wine news and industry trends. The hallmark of the show will be guest interviews with winemakers, vineyards owners, wine retail / wholesale leaders, restaurateurs and sommeliers. 

Podcasting is a new technology allowing a listener to “subscribe” to audio shows on the Internet that he or she wishes to receive. Just like radio, the shows are received free of charge. Using a podcasting client such as iPodder or iPodderX users will receive new shows as they are published.  With podcasting, the shows are automatically retrieved. Systems can easily be configured to automatically transfer the podcasts to the mp3 player of your choice, burn them to CD or play them directly on your computer, phone or mobile device. Podcasting puts the listener in charge of deciding when, where and how they are going to listen to the show. Podcasting is the future of mobile audio content delivery. More information on Podcasting can be found here.

The Oakville based wine ladies , Georgia and Susanne, have a radio show on 1050 Chum every Saturday morning from 10.00 am to 11.00 am.  

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