HELL'S KITCHEN

 

Let's go back to 1994.  Nancy Kerrigan is whacked with a metal bar. ER and Friends debut on NBC.  Kurt Cobain takes his life at 27.  Forrest Gump is running across U.S. screens.

I am in NYC- a modern dancer performing with the Nikolais Louis Dance Company.  My best friend, Christian, lives in Hell's Kitchen.  Not today's Hell's Kitchen, with its fancy condos and gleaming, trendy restaurants, but a 90's Hell's Kitchen.  It is a neighborhood of sirens, bodegas, shadows, and cat-sized rats.

Christian and I have a ritual.  Since we are both from restaurant kitchen backgrounds, and since we brew homebrew together, and most importantly, since Christian has cable, we meet at his house with microbrew in hand and turn on the telly.  There is a new network called the Food Network and we are entranced.  It's like nothing we've seen before.  There is this guy, Emeril Lagasse, and he is cooking (kickin' it up a notch) in a way we have never seen on television.  It is what we now know as "edutainment".  But, for two ex-kitchen guys like us it is a way to re-live the good ol' days and be inspired.  Inevitably, it led us to the corner bodegas for supplies and a foraged dinner was prepared.

Let's flash forward to 2008.  I am asked to present my wines at a benefit dinner.  The chef  for the evening is none other than Emeril Lagasse.  I jump at the opportunity!  Emeril has done so much to get people eating outside of our cultural boundaries.  He has inspired a generation to try new foods.  The Food Network has brought new ideas about cooking into our living rooms.  My goal is to do the same with wine.  I didn't grow up with wine.  I grew up with sweet tea.  But, I have found a world outside of what I knew.  A world of wonderful flavors.  A world of traditions.  A world that I hope to share with others.

I make wine that is, if nothing else, food-friendly.  And, I love nothing more than talking to others about what we do in Oregon- how our wines at Anne Amie reflect what we are passionate about and how our terroir is reflected in every bottle of our wine. So, it is with great pride that I packed myself off for an opportunity to pair my wines with the food of someone who I have so much respect for.

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