May 21 2007
On the same day that a girlfriend of my wife serendipitously sent and lent her a copy of Julie & Julia, one of the first books borne out of a blog, I received my copy of Chocolate & Zucchini from Amazon.com—a narrative-style cookbook from Clotilde Dusoulier, authoress of the excellent blog Chocolate & Zucchini and one of the few blog writers who has crossed-over to a publishing deal.
Living in Montmartre, just to the north of Paris, France, Clotilde’s stock in trade is charming wit and verve in presenting French and French-inspired dishes. If you’re a foodie, her blog should be in your feed reader—her food photographs alone will make any lover of food porn blush. And, Chocolate & Zuccini the book is gorgeous, as well. Full four color on heavy stock and thoughtfully layed out, I highly recommend it for armchair reading.
Aside from supporting a blog author, the other reason I picked it up was to check out Lenn from Lenndevours.com and his wine pairings, included with almost every recipe. Most recipes are beautifully matched with a wine that has wider availability—wider availability may mean the New York or California market, though, because I know 3/4th of the wines aren’t available in the wine backwater that is Indiana—no fault of Lenn’s, certainly.
Generally speaking, though, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed overall with Lenn’s work. Not bad for a software marketer. When I read Lenn’s blog post many months back revealing this project, I figured the wine pairings would be of the supermarket variety i.e. Blackstone Merlot with the steak frites—you know, wines you can find in Indiana. But, such is not the case. Not only are the wines very thoughtfully calculated, but his tasting notes reveal a careful consideration to carefully match flavor components.
Kudos to Lenn, for what was surely a huge project evidenced just by browsing the book. Clotilde was a bit scant in her praise of Lenn, in my estimation, as well, simply based on my judgment in reading the forward to the book. So, some ‘atta boys’ from the wine blogosphere is surely merited.
On one delicious recipe for Strawberry Avocado Ceviche, Lenn pairs the dish with Bouvet Brut Rośe with tasting notes that say:
“The Crispness of this sparkler matches the acidity of the fish and cuts through the richness of the avocado, while the berry flavors respond to the strawberry component. It has a clean finish and a light-to-medium body, ideal to open a meal.
In yet another dish, Lenn pairs a Chestnut and Mushroom Soup with a New Zealand Pinot—the Brancott Vineyards 2004 Pinot Noir. The tasting notes say:
The typical Pinot Noir flavors of black fruit are joined by a light earthiness that complements the mushrooms, while the dusty cocoa and toasty-spicy oak notes respond to the chestnuts. It is fruity and light, with a gentle acidity and low tannins.
Whatever Lenn was paid he definitely earned every cent and then some (and let’s be frank, writing books for 97% of the population DOES NOT keep the lights on, so it’s likely he was vastly underpaid).
Kudos and compliments to our wine blogging brother for very meritorious work!
And, be sure to pick up the book and support a blogging author, Clotilde, as well. Checking it out from the library, while fiscally responsible, doesn’t do anything to help sales and ensure that more bloggers cross-over. Though, it may help you buy more wine for one of Lenn’s pairings.
Hmm … okay, now that I think about it, buy the book used on Amazon and use the savings to buy some wine for the wine pairing and the dish that you’ll prepare from the recipes.
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