Dean & DeLuca: the food and wine cookbook
For the dedicated and obsessive foodie, have we got a cookbook for you! Dean & Deluca: the food and wine cookbook starts with a brief overview of what differentiates one wine from another (focusing on California wines) and then goes on to advise on the storing and serving the wine to bring out its best flavors. The book then moves on to the main dish with each of the nearly hundred recipes having a list of the best wine pairings.
I found a lot of information I did not know before. For example, the instruction "room temperature" for serving red wine dates back to a time and place when rooms tended to be a bit colder than now. And white wines can suffer from "overchilling" and will not release all their flavors when too cold. There's lots more to learn here. If you want to make a hobby of gourmet cooking and/or wine collecting, this book will definitely get you started. If you are already a connoisseur this book is a great reference for food and wine pairings.
