The Final Blow: A Culinary Adventure with Jeffrey Saad

Day 3 of the WBC continued my love affair with all things Walla Walla. I mean just the name alone makes me smile so how could it be anything but great fun, right?

I almost blew off the last seminar which I'm sure a great number of people considered doing as well. (Sunday after a 3 day conference is never a good day to be a featured guest speaker.) Thankfully, I stuck around to hear celebrity chef Jeffrey Saad (25 year culinary veteran, cookbook author, and recent runner up of the Next Food Network Star Season 5) share his thoughts on food and wine pairing. Now I've personally heard this talk about 25 times from some of the best people in the industry, so I wasn't really expecting all that much. BOY, was I wrong! Jeffrey is one of those rare charismatic people who exudes enthusiasm and oozes charm along with his straight forward tips on pairing the right wines with the right foods. He's fun to listen to and puts things in simple terms that everyone can understand. I found myself scribbling notes which I got to put to good use at the hands-on food and wine pairing demonstration immediately following his seminar. It was an awesome way to wrap up the 2010 Wine Bloggers' Conference, sending me home with a few extra pounds to add to my already wine stained teeth and fond memories of Walla Walla, Washington.

Here are some of Jeffrey's basics:

Acid with Acid: If a dish is high in acid, serve it with a wine that is also higher in acid. (Think tomato sauce and Sangiovese.)

Fat with Acid: If a dish is high in fat, serve lean crisp wines high in acid. The acidity cuts through the fat and allows the flavors to come through. (Think lemon juice with fish.)

Protein or Animal Fat with Tannin: For protein rich foods serve wines high in tannins. The protein will soften the tannins and make the fruit come forward.

Spicy with Sweet: Serve off dry or fruity wines with spicy foods to cut through the spice and bring out the aromatics in the wine. Avoid tannins which get more pronounced with spicy foods. Think Riesling or Gewürztraminer. (My personal favorite = Dry Creek Vineyard Chenin Blanc with Thai cuisine!)

For more on Jeffrey's talk, visit http://jeffreysaad.com

By Kim on July 8, 2010 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

2 Comments

Lisa Mattson, Jordan Winery Vlog said:
July 14, 2010 6:38 AM

Hi Kim,

Great post. Chef Saad's speech definitely ended the conference on an even higher note (and it was already quite awesome). :)

We completely all the video diaries we recorded. I also posted a raw version of Chef Saad's presentation. The audio is decent, but I was too close to the stage so he moves in and out of the frame. I guess his points are really what matters though.

http://www.youtube.com/winebloggerschannel

Best,
Lisa
http://blog.jordanwinery.com

Kim (aka Wilma) said:
July 15, 2010 10:31 AM

Hi Lisa, thanks for commenting. As you can see I was inspired by your talk on video blogging!

The Final Blow: A Culinary Adventure with Jeffrey Saad

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