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| What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea - Even Water - Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers | 
 enlarge | Authors: Andrew Dornenburg, Karen Page
Creator: Michael Sofronski
Publisher: Bulfinch
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $20.44
You Save: $14.56 (42%)
New (23) Used (9) from $20.34
Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 6979
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.4
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7.6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0821257188
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5
EAN: 9780821257180
ASIN: 0821257188
Publication Date: September 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Drink and Food Pairing December 12, 2007
This is the best book of it's type that I have ever seen. It covers just about every food and type of food you can think of and isn't just a wine pairing book - it covers beer and other beverages as well. A must have!
A culinary student must have May 12, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recently had to do a food and wine pairing for class. Considering i'm still in school, I had no idea what to do.After talking to a chef instructor, I decided that this book would benefit me in both school and out in the industry. I mean, it even pairs water. Yeah, this book is definately worth every cent.
Don't Bother Me...I'm choosing a wine.....! April 18, 2007
13 out of 18 found this review helpful
The dust on my furniture is thickening, the phone is ringing, my dog wants a walk...Sorry, I am selecting which beverage to serve tomorrow nite with peel-and-eat shrimp...oh, what fun!! Watch out because once you open this book, it will be awhile before you rejoin the world: It's pure facination and empowerment (!) for an avid foodie who has never been quite certain of what wine to serve without groveling at the local wine shop! And it's not just about wine; there are fabulous suggestions for beer, citrus drinks, tea....
There are already excellent reviews (in my opinion) so I don't want to reinvent the wheel by raving on the photos, the organization, the pure depth of information, the perfection of this book. But if you have stopped on this page, you probably also own a dog-eared, raggedy, finger-smudged copy of "Culinary Artistry" (somewhat like mine is?) and suffice to say that while this is a much more beautiful book and may not necessarily be sitting next to your stove (although there are wonderful recipes...)you will probably refer to it as often.
Suggestion: Read the more in-depth reviews, click to order....and purchase those little anti-static dust cloths. I haven't figured out what to do about the dog yet...
From http://www.AWineStory.com Publisher Marisa D'Vari April 9, 2007
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
Are you curious about what wine to order with your cheesecake? Intimidated by five-hundred page wine list at a top restaurant? Downright scared when the sommelier comes charging toward your table?
Relax. Authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have created a resource that helps even the `average Joe or Jane' understand the principles of wine and food pairing. They take the conventional, canned, old-school advice of "red wine with meat, white wine with fish" to an entirely new level, based on insights learned from their previous books on cuisine, as well as interviews with America's top, cutting-edge sommeliers.
In many ways, the format of What to Drink with What You Eat resembles a substantial wine/food pairing encyclopedia specifically designed to be quickly skimmed before heading off to a restaurant or purchasing wine for a dinner party. For example, let's say you are entertaining clients at a steakhouse, and want to sound intelligent about wine. You know red wine typically goes with red meat, but which red? Old world or new? And what are the virtues of each? By spending just five minutes with this book (and perhaps jotting down some notes) you will be able to help your guests order a Shiraz, Barbaresco, Barolo, or good old Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon based on the elements of the sauce and cut of meat they choose.
In a similar fashion, let's say you want to dazzle your friends and show off your new kitchen with a fabulous dinner party. Spend a few moments with this book and you will be able to pair every element of your menu with an exciting, unusual wine. No need to consult a professional wine expert, as you have this knowledge at your fingertips.
Sommeliers interviewed for this book are mostly young and more free-thinking than sommeliers of years past. They are enthusiastic about wine, regardless of it's an exciting, new world find of exceptional value, or a fine-aged Bordeaux worth hundreds of dollars. As a group, they see their mission as helping you find a good wine to accessorize your meal within your price range. And the individual quotes from sommeliers are what makes this book so fresh and appealing.
For example, Steve Beckta of Beckta Dining & Wine in Ottawa believes that as a sommelier, it is almost more important to match a wine to a person than to match the wine to the food. Curious thought! "The most important part of being a sommelier is not your ability to taste, but your ability to empathize with the person who is in front of you," he explains in the book.
How very true. In one instance, Beckta recalls three `big businessmen' sitting at a table. One wants lamb, one wants halibut, and the other guy wants scallops. They tell him they want the "perfect" wine that matches all three, dissimilar dishes. By carefully listening to the subtext of what they are telling him, Beckta realizes they are after a wine that fits into their comfort zone, not necessarily the best match. To him, that means a "big red" from Australia and as it turns out, the businessmen love it.
Sommelier Alpana Singh, formerly of Everest in Chicago (now with the Lettuce Entertainment Group) agrees that comfort is important. She likes to serve California wines on big holidays like New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day, because people who dine out only a few `special nights' a year want something they can recognize and appreciate.
If you entertain or dine out frequently, What To Drink with What You Eat is a dynamic desktop resource and wine and food pairing primer that will stimulate you to learn more about wine by further reading or classes. If you like oaky Chardonnay, for example, this book will also motivate you to try unoaked Chardonnay wines and realize the difference, especially when paired with food. Yet what works best about this book is the way you can take advantage of the authors' extensive research and with just a few minutes of skimming, come across as a credible wine expert in front of clients, colleagues, family and friends.
 Great content, sloppy editing April 6, 2007
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
First off, it's very wide ranging and is incredibly easy to use. All of the recommendations in this book have come from top notch chefs and sommeliers, so you know they can be trusted. You'll often find a wealth of options to choose from, due to the democratic group effort behind this. You'll also get more than just wine, which is incredibly refreshing. Some refuse to admit it, but there are dishes that simply work better with other drinks. They go above simply listing "beer" and will put "lager", "wheat beer", etc., which is nice.
The book uses a system of bold print, capital letters, and asterisks to point out which drinks work particularly well. It's also nice to see a section afterwards that does the reverse and is listed by drink and then has food suggestions. Sometimes you want to build the meal around a special bottle of wine instead of vice versa. After that comes specific recommendations from some of the well known contributors to the book. It's an almost flawless book. Except....
....the book is very poorly edited and, in at least two cases, factually inaccurate. Jean-Luc Le Du is either misquoted, misinformed, or simply misspoke. The quote: "Where to find great Cabernet Sauvignon: This would be a toss-up between hillside vineyards in California and Pomerol in France." I had to do a double take...Pomerol? For Cab Sauv? Huh? Not only that, I noticed this statement in two different parts of the book. I'm assuming M. Le Du meant to say Pauillac, as Pomerol is, of course, known for Merlot, which makes up most or all (80-100%, usually) of the wine blend there. Even if there is Cab Sauv in the blend, it's a minimal amount of the wine. I can understand misspeaking and saying Pomerol when you mean Pauillac; it happens. But how this obvious factual error ended up in the final print of the book is beyond me. Anyone that buys a Pomerol expecting a shining example of Cab Sauv will be disappointed (although they may end up with some of the world's best Merlot.)
I've also noticed another factual error concerning the retail price of a certain wine; they mention Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon as a great value wine at $10 a bottle. It actually retails for around $30-$35 a bottle, not $10.
While I have yet to find any other major errors in the text (not that I'm actively searching for them, but maybe I should), I have noticed a couple grammatical blunders; missing punctuation, spelling errors and such. It's disappointing to see easily correctable errors like this mar an otherwise fantastic book. That being said, don't let these gripes deter you from buying this excellent reference source for food and drink pairings. Clean up the grammar and factual errors and this becomes a 5 star book.
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