Chef Suzanne Goin, while growing up in Los Angeles, says her family started every Thanksgiving dinner by reading the annual Wall Street Journal story on the history of Thanksgiving. Suzanne remembers, “Every year we wondered out loud whose year it was to read, and I did not want to be picked. Even then, my main interest was in the food. I remember thinking, ‘can’t we get to the turkey?’”
Today, Suzanne loves holiday rituals, but they are focused on food and wine. Co-owner, with partner Caroline Styne, of Lucques and A/O/C restaurants in Los Angeles, she favors traditional holiday recipes, like turkey and stuffing, but often gives them a bold, Mediterranean-style taste twist. And, of course, she considers wine an important part of festive meals and holiday parties.
To see recipes from Suzanne's holiday feast, CLICK HERE.
For Suzanne’s Thanksgiving Menu
For Thanksgiving, Caroline chose to accompany the Cipollini and Blue Cheese Tart with a Loire Valley Chenin Blanc, a Vouvray from an appellation just east of Tours at the center of the Loire Valley, one of France’s most productive and best-known wine-making areas. “The acidity of the Chenin Blanc grape is mellowed by a touch of sweetness, which makes it one of my favorite white wines in the world,” says Caroline. “And as a bonus,” she adds, “it ages extremely well too.”
With the turkey, Caroline recommends serving a Pinot Noir she’s familiar with, since pinots can vary greatly. “This grape has been grown in France for thousands of years, and it’s the royal fruit of all the great Burgundies,” she explains. The Pinot Noir grape is also grown in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, and is known as a temperamental varietal. Nevertheless, there are fine Pinot Noirs bring produced in California’s cooler regions, such as Santa Barbara and the Russian River Valley. And it’s being grown fairly extensively in Oregon.” Caroline laughs and adds, “of course it was Miles’ favorite wine in Sideways, which gave it a huge boost.”
Pairing Wine with Food
How does Caroline choose wines? “I analyze each dish and search for wines that complement their flavors and style. She chose all Spanish wines for a recent small plates party with Mediterranean flavors. “Bold tastes call for robust wines. Dishes with an innate sweetness, such as stuffed dates and shrimp, call for a white wine with a strong mineral taste,” Caroline says.
Serving lamb at a holiday dinner party? For this strong-flavored meat, Caroline recently chose a full-flavored wine from Ribera Del Duero, made mainly from Spanish tempranillo grapes. This is “a dark, earthy, manly kind of red wine,” she explains, “and it goes well with roast lamb or grilled beef.”
To contrast with other rich dishes she chose a dry white wine, Bodegas Ithica, Pedro Jimenez (Pedro Ximenez), “the same varietal used to make sherry,” she explains. “This is a wine you could easily drink throughout a meal because it has layered flavors—a broad, rich, full-bodied texture with great acidity. That’s what makes it dry—the acidity wraps all those rich floral flavors together and cleans it up on your palate. But it’s also easy to drink, which is what I want in a dinner party or a cocktail party wine.”
Watching Costs
For holiday gatherings with lots of guests, both Suzanne (and Caroline emphasize that there are wonderful wines available today for $10 to $25 per bottle. “For me, the size of the guest list determines what I spend on wine. Not all great-tasting wines are costly,” says Caroline.
At large parties Caroline recommends serving “small pours,” say two to four ounces of wine per glass. “That way, you can get 75 glasses from a case, and your friends can try lots of different wines,” she advises. “That makes parties fun, and gives everyone something to talk about.”
And for everything but the most formal party, Caroline uses the new “stem-less” wine glasses by Reidel. “I’m used to the red and white wine glasses, but at home and often at parties, I use the smaller, white wine glasses for everything. They just feel right. And it’s fun to drink wine out of a tumbler. Somehow, it makes things feel more relaxed. But the truth is, good wine can be sipped from anything at all, and it will still be good.”
Both Suzanne and Caroline like to start celebration meals with champagne. “It’s the most festive wine in the world. Something about the bubbles just make you feel like you’re celebrating,” says Caroline. Suzanne and husband David Lentz, who owns the Hungry Cat in Los Angeles, keep a bottle of their favorite Billecarte Salmon rose champagne and a split of '88 Krug in their home refrigerator. “You never know when you have something private to celebrate,” explains Suzanne. “I always like to be prepared.”
To see recipes from Suzanne's holiday feast, CLICK HERE.
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