Document text
Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad June 15, 2006 Painting the palate with wine Catherine Moore specializes on fitting the drink to the food By Sarah Golden Tidings correspondent As a composer can think about how two notes will sound together and a chef is able to imagine how different spices will taste together, the paring of a wine and a meal can be a rewarding and beautiful experience. Catherine Moore, maitre d’, manager and wine advisor at the Peerless restaurant, is an artist of this sensory experience. Moore’s art lies in her ability to consider the type of wines a patron enjoys, the dinner they have ordered, and recommending a wine that the person is unfamiliar with. “I navigate through the treasure trove of tastes, flavors and senses available to me,” said Moore. “The reward of my art is when the customer midway through the meal says, ‘that was the perfect pairing and I never would have thought of that. That was such a great experience.’” It is that type of memorable sensory experience that, Moore believes, separates an average and exceptional dining experience. Moore’s relationship with flavors and wines started at a young age, as her mother was a great cook. “When I was little I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with my mom, observing and trying lots of flavors,” said Moore. “That established a relationship [with food] right off the bat.” For this reason, Moore believes she was born with a specific type of sensory palate. “My experience just reinforced and informed that,” she said. It was her love of art history that led Moore to study abroad in Italy in her college years. While there, she began to learn about the pairing of food and wine organically through everyday life. “The Italians work to live and food and wine are a really big part of that,” she said. “It’s not a rarified experience, it’s one of the beauties of everyday life.” While living in Greve, Italy, Moore answered an ad to read out loud in English to an elderly woman. After four months, Moore found out that the woman she was reading to, Donna Maria, was the female matriarch of the Antinori family, one of the most important Chianti wine families. “I was out in the vineyard with her everyday drinking wine and reading to her,” Moore reminisced. “It was a magical experience. I had no idea that I was going on this incredible journey.” Before Moore could speak Italian she found a great way to interact with the culture and the people: hang out in kitchens as food was being prepared. “Even though I couldn’t speak I could observe,” she said. “That was how I began to collect recipes from different regions. I realized as I was traveling that the food and wine was dramatically different in each little geographic area.” Between those experiences, Moore truly grasped the connection between food, wine and geography. It was common for communities to have a wine co-op, a local winery where everyone combined grapes to make a large batch of wine and, depending on the tonnage of grapes contributed, received their wine supply for the year. “The wine was just a natural expression of that geography and that was what I thought was really cool,” said Moore. “I didn’t think of it as an intellectual experience I just had a real sensory experience of it and it was so great.” Upon returning to the United States, Moore recognized that she had acquired an amazing talent. “I realized that I had the opportunity to share my experience with other people,” she said, which is what she did as she started to teach Italian cooking classes which included a discussion of a specific area, including wine and food from that region. “The cooking class was very hands on, tasting flavors together and talking about what was going on politically and economically that created a cuisine. A cuisine isn’t just an expression of the earth but also an expression of what is going on politically and economically.” Moore also started to lead trips back to Italy, which were focused around the art history, the food and the wineries. “I realized I was never going to get a job as an art historian by itself,” said Moore. “But there was this great opportunity to blend these three arts together to create something really unique.” Now, working at the Peerless, Moore applies her knowledge in a different way. As the Peerless prides itself in serving sustainable, organic food from the Northwest, the menu changes to what is in season and available. The wine list, on the other hand, includes an array of wine from many different places. Therefore the organic pairing of food and wine that grew from the same soil, as Moore learned in Italy, did not directly transfer. “I’m dealing with wine from all over the world and blending them with flavors here,” said Moore. “Therein lies the art.” --> Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.