Dean & DeLuca: The Food and Wine Cookbook (Hardcover)

by Jeff Morgan (Author), Steven Rothfeld (Author) "In this mecca of New World wine making, heat and sunshine ripen grapes while bracing Pacific air preserves their precious natural acidity..." (more)
Key Phrases: residual grape sugar, varietal designation, truffle filling, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When they opened their first store in 1977, Joel Dean and Giorgio DeLuca's mission was to spread the gospel of good eating. Today the very name Dean & DeLuca conjures up visions of the holy land for seekers of fine cheeses, charcuterie, and fresh-baked artisan breads. In Dean & DeLuca: The Food and Wine Cookbook, D&D wine director Jeff Morgan celebrates the sublime marriage of D&D's original old-world concept--offering top-quality international culinary selections--and the influence of California's diverse wines. Beginning with a veritable "California Wine 101" course, Morgan details a concise history of California winemaking from pre-gold rush days through the dry gulch of Prohibition and onward to glory in the 1980s. Also included are primers on the chief varietals and the basics of pairing wine with food. The recipes, which range from uncomplicated to fairly ambitious, and from economical to downright indulgent, are both inventive and inviting. Simple dishes like Chilled Yellow Tomato Soup with Guacamole, and Fish Soup with Artichoke Hearts and Artichoke Aioli highlight the best of California's bounty, while Lobster, Cabernet, and Shitake Soup, or Caviar Soufflé provide opportunities to revel in the elegant. Clever twists on more usual dishes are also well represented: Chile-Pecan Chicken Breasts with Honey Mustard Glaze, Garlic Pork Chops with Sauvignon Beurre Blanc, and Saffron Chardonnay Risotto offer welcome variety. Not all of the recipes include wine as an ingredient, but each includes helpful wine-pairing suggestions. All in all, this book provides a handy recipe for embracing the good life by celebrating the best of food and wine. --Robin Donovan

Review
The Food and Wine Cookbook, a guide to pairing California wines with food, is the latest effort from Dean & DeLuca, the New York-based chain of gourmet shops that has an outlet in Napa Valley s St. Helena. Author Jeff Morgan, wine director for the chain and a frequent contributor to Wine Country Living, packs a lot of information into the early chapters, providing a thumbnail sketch of the history and geography of California wine country and a primer on serving, cellaring and drinking wine. None of the information is new, but it is presented here in a well-organized, accessible format.

The 80 recipes, developed by Dean & DeLuca s chefs with Morgan, are an eclectic and well-chosen selection. The accent is on Mediterranean flavors, but Asian and Middle Eastern ingredients appear as well. Each dish gets several wine recommendations based on Morgan s sensible and flexible guidelines.

The book is also a useful reference work. It contains guides to salad greens, mushrooms, olives and cheeses, and there is a section on standard techniques how to cook dried beans, shuck oysters and trim artichokes and recipes for basics like mayonnaise and veal demiglace.

Recipes cover everything from appetizers to sweets. Imaginative main courses include a slow-cooked beef brisket rubbed with Indian spices and skate wings dredged in porcini dust. Side dishes, such as zucchini-blossom tempura with goat cheese and roasted figs, are equally creative. Morgan s broad knowledge and passion come across in his engaging prose, and Steven Rothfeld s photographs are mouthwatering.

Throughout the book, Morgan promotes enjoying wine as part of a leisurely meal created with fresh, healthful ingredients. But not too healthful he also recommends putting a dollop of St. Andre butter, a blend of butter and super-rich French cheese, on your steak. -Wine Country Living

For anyone who lives in New York, many who have visited New York and perhaps a few who've barely heard of New York, two words are synonymous with gourmet food: Dean & DeLuca.

In a new cookbook, the food shop adds California wine to its list of favorite things. The store's wine director, Jeff Morgan, pairs more than 80 dishes with California varietal wines in 'Dean & DeLuca: The Food and Wine Cookbook" (Chronicle, $35). And even though Morgan is happy to suggest a wine with each and every recipe, he's also happy to encourage home cooks and diners to follow their own taste buds to pairings still undiscovered.

Leading off the book is an indepth discussion of California wine, its history and geography. Morgan also explores the marriage between food and wine, explaining how the latter has enhanced enjoyment fo the former throughout history.

The book also includes many color photographs, evoking the hillside vineyards and giving a vivid sense of California's wine country. There is a useful glossary of important terms and exotic ingredients. -Chicago Tribune

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1 edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811832139
• ISBN-13: 978-0811832137
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #709,642 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Color photos pack an equally colorful discussion, July 12, 2002

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Dean & DeLuca is a food emporium now entering the cookbook market with Dean & Deluca: Food And Wine Cookbook, showcasing a blend of recipes and experimental urgings blending wines with food. Color photos pack an equally colorful discussion of stars, favored recipes, original dishes spiced by the chefs at Dean & DeLuca, and dishes that sound flashy but are easily put together. Recommended for experienced cooks seeking innovative new ideas.

4 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars White Chocolate Trouble and Sodium Surprise, August 26, 2002

By	"spitbite" (Shortnin' Bread, Lincoln) - See all my reviews

We had a go at the White Chocolate Truffle and Raspberry tart.
We followed all the steps verbatim, and truth be told- it looked outstanding. Lucky for us it was ours alone to enjoy- or so we thought. Turns out we were lucky there was nobody else there to curse us for serving it to them.
It met its demise on the pavement by the dumpster outside our house. We thought we had seen the last of it, but when we awoke the next morning, it greeted us with open arms and a note reading "Thanks a lot a**hole we'd rather eat rats". We're pretty sure we weren't too discriminating. A complete disaster.
The crust was terrible- who thought this recipe up? The white chocolate truffle filling somehow managed to taste like salted lard (and we used unsalted butter as the recipe indicated).

A public apology should be in order. Nasty stuff, Dean & Deluca!