Tag: Food

History, nutritional values and recipes: a focus on pepper, one of the most widely consumed spice in the world.

In 1979, Michael McCarty was getting ready to open his inaugural restaurant, Michael’s, in Santa Monica, Calif. It would become a beacon of the California cuisine movement. (If McCarty flies under the radar as a founder of the genre, his pioneering influence is nonetheless unmistakable; Wolfgang Puck notably opened Spago three years later, in 1982.)

1979 was a busy year for Michael: He and his girlfriend, artist Kim Lieberman, were also renovating their Douglas Rucker–designed post-and-beam house in Malibu. With the help of Rucker himself, they knocked down the walls between the dining room, living room and kitchen to create one big free-flowing space. Today, open floor plans, much like farm-to-table cuisine, enjoy great cachet. But not so in 1979. “I just wanted it open,” Michael, 65, shrugs. “Drove me crazy. It was so beautiful.”

Five years on, Kim and Michael were married on their tennis court, cantilevered over the ocean. In 1985, they added a vineyard. “We were having a wild party at my house, and I had just received the sixth notice from the L.A. County Fire Department saying, ‘You must clear the obnoxious weeds that are surrounding your property,’ because we had fire problems,” Michael says. “So I said to Dick [Graff, of Chalone Vineyard], I said, ‘This is killing me, this is costing me thousands of dollars.’ He said, ‘Why don’t we plant a vineyard?’ I said, ‘Done! We’re doing it!’ ”

They cleared an acre and planted cuttings of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon from Mount Eden Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc from Joseph Phelps in Napa. When the McCartys’ daughter, Clancy, was born in 1986, the neighbors strung the vineyard posts with pink streamers. Son Chas followed in 1989, the year of the vineyard’s first vintage.

But in 1993, disaster struck. The Old Topanga Fire leveled much of the area, including the McCartys’ home. Michael had just landed in New York to visit his satellite Manhattan restaurant when he got the call. “It was the winds that changed; that’s what always happens,” he says. “We got nailed.” Vines often act as a firebreak because of their water content, but located downwind from the house, they couldn’t save it.

The McCartys called on Rucker again, this time to rebuild the house in its former image, only larger, stretching the noted Malibu architect’s typical proportions. “He made beautiful little Craftsman-style houses, more what you would think about as a California bungalow,” Michael explains. The home shot up from 3,000 square feet to 5,000, mostly thanks to the additions of a big deck and an upstairs master bedroom suite.

But the footprint of the rest of the house expanded too. Pitched over the living space, Rucker’s tongue-and-groove Douglas fir ceilings were done using wider-than-usual beams—6 inches across rather than 4—to better suit the room’s amplified, 1,500-square-foot scale.

Though it wasn’t destroyed, “The vineyard was shocked,” Michael says. It didn’t produce fruit for three years. In 1999, the team, led by winemaker Bruno D’Alfonso, decided it just wasn’t working—”so we took the whole goddamn thing out,” Michael says. They had seen the most consistent success with Pinot Noir, so they added a second acre and replanted the land to three Dijon clones of the grape and updated the trellising. The wine was labeled The Malibu Vineyard. Since its first vintage in 2005, it has produced 100 to 200 cases a year, sold at Michael’s Wine Spectator Award of Excellence-winning flagship restaurant in L.A. and his Best of Award of Excellence winner in New York, as well as at a few Malibu and Santa Monica restaurants and shops.

At home, Michael often goes for Minuty rosé or a big Barolo; Kim favors Sancerre. They keep four or five cases at home—”and it gets consumed rapidly!” Michael says. “We always entertain on Sundays. We always cook.” The patio can hold up to 80 people, as it does for their annual day-after-Thanksgiving get-together featuring Michael’s turkey BLTs. Beyond the main house, two guest houses, one with a pool, provide ample hangout space. “We’re not precious,” Kim, 62, says. “People come by with thousands of dogs, and our kids still come and destroy our pool house many times a year with all their friends.”

After four decades—including multiple renovations, a full-scale rebuilding, a home wedding, the growing-up of two kids, and the planting and replanting of an estate vineyard—Kim and Michael’s place has endured. “Building something takes a long time,” Kim reflects. “But we got to build the house we wanted.”

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A version of this story appeared in the Dec. 31, 2018, issue of Wine Spectator, which went to press in early November. Shortly thereafter, the Woolsey fire ravaged parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, including Malibu, displacing tens of thousands of residents and scorching local vineyards. Michael and Kim McCarty gratefully report that the fire did not directly affect their home or vineyard. However, relief efforts are ongoing. The McCartys encourage you to help by donating to the Malibu Foundation.

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Photo Gallery

Photos by Joe Schmelzer; click any image to enlarge

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Albert Frère, co-owner of Bordeaux’s famed Château Cheval-Blanc in St.-Emilion, died Dec. 3 at age 92. The Belgian billionaire was a co-investor with Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, when they acquired the legendary estate in 1998.

“I am deeply saddened by the death of my friend,” said Arnault, in a statement. “Albert was an extraordinary man and a truly exceptional entrepreneur. Throughout our 35 years of faithful friendship we forged extremely close ties, both personal and professional.”

With diverse investments that stretched from steel to fashion to oil, the Belgian business titan was also famously passionate about wine. He enjoyed his times at Cheval-Blanc, where he developed a strong camaraderie with the team running the estate.

“He was both a businessman and a man of the Earth, a real vigneron. He often came to see us and he was a great ambassador for our wines,” Pierre Lurton, director of Château Cheval-Blanc and Château d’Yquem, told Wine Spectator. “He was a real visionary.”

Frère was the wealthiest man in Belgium, with a fortune estimated at $5.8 billion. King Albert II of Belgium made him a baron in 1994. Frère started his rise to riches during World War II, at age 17, when he left school to run the family’s modest nail business.

From the start, he was a savvy entrepreneur, rebuilding the company in the years after the war. By the 1950s, he was investing in steel factories. Two decades later, he dominated Belgium’s steel industry. Eventually, after a lucrative merger, he sold his steel business and created a holding company, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, that invested in oil, insurance, telecommunications, finance and other sectors. He helped negotiate some of France’s largest mergers and acquisitions.

In addition to Cheval-Blanc, Arnault and Frère bought Château Quinault l’Enclos, also in St.-Emilion, in 2008. “Beyond his innate business sense, I will always remember Albert’s passionate love of life, his great skill in unifying people and his tremendous commitment to everything he undertook to accomplish,” said Arnault.

Frère is survived by his wife, Christine, two of his three children and several grandchildren.

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Stay on top of important wine stories with Wine Spectator’s free Breaking News Alerts.

Indian chef Sunil Ghai speaks at Food on the Edge about how he has worked to change the perception of Indian cuisine and make it more authentic.

For keen cooks and foodies, these smart gadgets offer up some perfect Christmas food gift ideas.

Bartenders from all over the world are raising the bar for high-end mixology drinks: find out more about these liquid chefs.

The BEST ever homemade creamed corn! The absolute perfect yet easy peasy side dish for all! So creamy, so velvety, so amazing.

Hold, please, while I faceplant myself into this pool of the creamiest creamed corn ever, smothered with all the crispy bacon one can want.

It’s absolute perfection. And it’s the only side dish I truly care about during the holidays.

That’s why I rush over to the creamed corn to serve myself before anyone else can get to it – mainly because I always like to steal all the bacon bits on top. It’s pure gold.

I’m a genius, I know. Because it’s all about strategizing this holiday season. Nothing else.

The post Stovetop Bacon Creamed Corn appeared first on Damn Delicious.

Line-up your favourite restaurants to try in the exciting dining offers happening in cities across the US and Canada in January 2019.

Learn how to mince garlic the chef way with these simple tips and say goodbye to the garlic crusher forever.

What are the cheese pros excited about right now? Like wine, the world of cheese is vast and diverse—potentially overwhelming, but rewarding to explore. No one is happier to guide you than your neighborhood cheesemongers. You should talk to them! In “Cheese Talk,” we introduce you to a top cheesemonger and ask them for three cheeses to look for this month, as well as what wines or other beverages to pair with them.

Not many labors of love begin with a mid-honeymoon announcement that your new spouse wants to quit his career, but that’s exactly how Kendall and John Antonelli’s journey to the top of the cheese world began.

The couple met as students at Georgetown University. John, from Suffern, N.Y., was chairman of Students of Georgetown, Inc., the student-run business that includes a campus grocery store, coffee shops and more; Kendall, a literal cowgirl who grew up on a ranch in north Texas, served as “The Corp’s” V.P. of grocery. John followed Kendall back to Texas after graduation. When the couple married in 2008, he had a successful career as a CPA at Deloitte; she was practicing immigration law and advocating for human-trafficking victims.

“We were on our honeymoon in Grenada,” says Kendall. “John was reading a sci-fi apocalyptic teen novel and thinking, ‘If the world ends today, was it all worth it?’ and he turns to me and says, ‘I just had the perfect wedding. I have the perfect wife. I love our home. I love our dogs. I love our city. … I just can’t stand my job.’ I said ‘OK … what do you want to do?’ and he said, ‘Something in cheese.’”

It wasn’t completely out of the blue. In high school, John’s older brother had given him a George Foreman Grill. It inspired him to start a grilled-cheese club with his classmates and a few teachers. “We were debating the merits of white Kraft vs. yellow American singles,” laughs John. “We weren’t working with the cheeses we work with now … there was a lot of Velveeté.”

Post-honeymoon, John threw himself into cheese. He attended the first-ever Murray’s Cheese Boot Camp in New York. (Kendall’s mother helped talk the specialty retailer into creating the program, and Kendall took the course not long after John.) He interned with legendary affineur Hervé Mons in France, and the couple explored the cheese cultures in Italy and Spain as well.

“Then we started running a gourmet grilled-cheese club out of our house,” Kendall says. “It was a six-course grilled-cheese dinner. And we learned a couple things about ourselves. One, we don’t really like slaving away over the stove. And two, we love being with people and building community through food; we love eating and talking. So we put that together and said, ‘Hey, what if we tell the story of artisanal food?’”

Antonelli’s Cheese Shop opened in 2010, and it’s been full-steam ahead ever since. “Now we have two shops, one with a kitchen,” says Kendall. “We have a warehouse selling wholesale to about 150 chefs and caterers. We have a Cheese House private-events venue hosting more than 200 events a year. We ship cheese nationwide, and we have 30 to 40 employees, but we still consider ourselves a small mom-and-pop. We joke that our cheese shop was our first baby that kept us up for sleepless nights, but since then we’ve had two biological babies. And they love cheese and prosciutto as well!”

Along the way, John was named to the board of directors of the American Cheese Society; he recently concluded a term as president. Kendall is on the board of the American Cheese Education Foundation, a non-profit alliance overseen by the ACS. “American cheeses are gaining a stage in the world market,” says John, “and that will continue, because our cheesemakers are so tremendous at what they do, so creative—it’s amazing.”

Their flagship shop carries 100 or so cheeses, about 70 percent of them domestic, along with jams, fresh-baked bread, charcuterie, pickled goods, mustards, chocolates and more. They also carry about 30 wines, all organic, sustainable or biodynamic, plus a few dozen beers.

“Our goal is that a customer comes in and sees something they know, and that becomes an entry point for us to get them talking and tasting and trying other things,” says Kendall. “Our mission is ‘Do good, eat good.’ We support artisans who make their food in a way that’s great for their animals, their land, the planet, their team and, most important, is delicious.” Each month, through the Antonellis’ philanthropy plan, they select one Charitable Cheese Cause to spotlight and support; this year’s recipients have included Big Love Cancer, the Texas Land Conservancy and Keep Austin Fed, among others. They also regularly contribute to charity events and fundraisers, including raising nearly $10,000 for hurricane-relief efforts in 2017.

Antonelli’s Cheese Shop
4220 Duval St., Austin, Texas
(512) 531-9610
AntonellisCheese.com

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Von Trapp Farmstead–Cellars at Jasper Hill Oma

Milk: Cow
Category: Washed-rind tomme
Region: Waitsfield, Vt.
Age: 10 to 14 weeks
Price: $35 per pound

Kendall says: I love Oma, but especially this time of year. Made by the Von Trapps—yes, relatives of those Von Trapps—on a farmstead operation in Waitsfield, Vt., Oma means “grandmother” in German. And this cheese is like a big ole hug from Grandma. It’s comforting, bulging and a little stinky. It’s a washed-rind cheese, resulting in an orange-hued rind with a straw-yellow paste that comes from the milk of primarily Jersey cows on their farm. While perhaps [smelling] a little funky, it actually has sweet and nutty flavors with a hint of garlic scapes.

Kendall’s recommended pairing: The appearance, the texture, the flavor … it all makes me want to curl up on the couch in front of a fireplace with a plate of cured meats, pickles, mustard and pumpernickel bread with a nice stout—cuddled up in that orange-and-green afghan blanket Grandma made in the ’70s. Waxing poetic? Yes. Overstated description? Perhaps. But that’s exactly what this cheese makes me feel. (For the record, my grandmother never crocheted an afghan, but eating this cheese makes me feel like she did.)

Wine Spectator picks: Most tomme-style cheeses (a category of small to medium-size wheels that originated in the French and Swiss Alps) share a nutty characteristic, and Oma is no different. But it also has a washed rind, which gives it a marked pungency. Aromatic whites like dry Riesling, Viognier and Gewürztraminer, as well as Grüner Veltliner and Pinot Gris, are lovely complements to Oma, along with light-bodied reds like Merlot, Pinot Noir (especially Spätburgunders) or Gamay. Try the delicate A to Z Wineworks Pinot Gris Oregon 2017 (87 points, $15, 66,726 cases made) or intense Yalumba Viognier South Australia The Y Series 2017 (90, $13, 19,000 cases imported, 2018 Top 100: No. 56).

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Fourme d’Ambert Terre des Volcans

Milk: Cow
Category: Semi-firm blue
Region: Auvergne, France
Age: 3 months
Price: $21 per pound

John says: One of the first cheeses I fell in love with was Fourme d’Ambert Terre des Volcans. Sometimes you want a blue that smacks you in the face; sometimes you want a blue that lures you in with a friendly approach and just reminds you what a good, reliable cheese is. This pasteurized cow’s-milk blue is the latter, offering even folks who don’t love blue a new chance to change their minds with its fudgelike texture that’s rich, creamy, milky and earthy. The flavors can range from fruity to mushroomy.

John’s recommended pairing: I recently took this home and enjoyed it with a bar of dark chocolate and a bottle of Nebbiolo.

Wine Spectator picks: Blues are perhaps the most strongly, sharply flavored category of cheeses and, not coincidentally, they’re most classically paired with rich and powerfully flavored wines (see: Stilton with Port; Roquefort with Sauternes). Fourme d’Ambert is on the gentler, creamier end of the blue spectrum, which is why it’ll pair beautifully with a young Langhe Nebbiolo like Michele Chiarlo Nebbiolo Langhe Il Principe 2016 (89, $20, 10,000 cases made). But for an eye-opening study in contrasts, try it with a bracingly tart sparkling wine like an extra brut or brut nature (aka “zero dosage”) like Bruno Paillard Extra Brut Champagne Première Cuvée NV (92, $50, 20,000 cases made). The lively acidity and minerally effervescence is a bright foil to a mouthcoatingly creamy, salty blue.

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Veldhuizen Fat Tailed Tomme

Milk: Sheep
Category: Washed-rind tomme
Region: Dublin, Texas
Age: 3 to 10 months
Price: $36 per pound

John says: If Oma is an everyday fave and Fourme d’Ambert is an old friend, then Fat Tailed Tomme is the novelty that recently came into our lives. Made in Dublin, Texas, by the Veldhuizen family, this is their first attempt at sheep’s-milk cheeses, a rarity in Texas—if they existed at all! Stuart and Connie have been making raw cow’s-milk cheeses for decades and aging them in their caves built in the side of a hill, and we’re excited they’ve added this to their lineup. When their daughter Rebecca wanted to move back to the family farm, they told her she needed to earn her keep. It was her dream and hard work that launched their farmstead sheep’s-milk creamery.

Taking inspiration from popular Manchego styles, Fat Tailed Tomme is named after the Awassi breed of sheep, known for their high milk production and—you guessed it—fat tails. Made with raw milk, it’s aged a minimum of two months, but they’re finding that flavor peaks around eight to 10 months, with notes of pineapple and other tropical fruit flavors, as well as hints of pasta. It develops a natural rind that is rubbed with olive oil.

John’s recommended pairing: Pair it with a dry sparkling cider.

Wine Spectator picks: Sheep’s milk has more than twice the fat content of cow’s milk, yielding cheeses with especially rich pastes. Fat Tailed Tomme is a Lone Star tribute to Spanish Manchego, so try it with a late-release Rioja Crianza like Bodegas Faustino 2014 (88, $14, 88,000 cases made), Bodegas LAN 2014 (88, $14, 96,000 cases made) or Cune 2015 (88, $13, 10,000 cases imported).