{"id":2445397,"date":"2019-06-16T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/reporters-notebook-final-day-of-fw-features-jacque-pepin-sake-seminar\/"},"modified":"2019-06-16T22:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T04:08:00","slug":"reporters-notebook-final-day-of-fw-features-jacque-pepin-sake-seminar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/reporters-notebook-final-day-of-fw-features-jacque-pepin-sake-seminar\/","title":{"rendered":"Reporters notebook: Final day of F&W features Jacque Pepin, sake seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Meatless treats<\/p>\n

Who says you can\u2019t be healthy and keep drinking?<\/p>\n

Led by the duo of chef and Wholesome Wave CEO Michel Nischan and Josh Wesson from The Splendid Table, seminar-goers at \u201cWhy \u2018Wine\u2019 About Going Meatless\u201d were treated to a spread of six drinks and dishes, all sporting meatless proteins and handcrafted by Top Chef alumni. A combination food critique and sommelier exploration, guests were invited to mix and match, with the goal of developing your palate and experiencing the basics of how drinks pair with food of all types.<\/p>\n

As Nischan and Wesson quickly moved through the variety of delicacies laid out while under the watchful and discerning eye of chef Jacques Pepin, past \u201cTop Chef\u201d alumni described their prepared dishes, ranging from sweet smoked beetroot plates and spicy black lentil kitchari to black babaganoush made with ancient grains.<\/p>\n

Through it all, Nischan and Wesson made suggestions for drink pairings, but encouraged experimentation following a few simple rules.<\/p>\n

The duo described pairs falling in love for two different reasons: Either love from similarities, or love from contrasts (but not opposites). Additionally, they described drinks as wielded in two different ways: Some as rapiers (finesse and fencing), or as broadswords (chop, chop).<\/p>\n

With dishes ranging the flavor gamut and drinks moving from semi-sweet ciders (usually paired with spice and heat to accent and offset rough edges) to pure rice sake (best mixed with high-salt dishes to amplify the qualities of both), the session was a quick-and-dirty rundown of the basic tools anyone needs to start their journey as a sommelier, all prepared by some of cooking\u2019s top talent.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Samuel Wagner<\/p>\n

For goodness\u2019 sake<\/p>\n

Sunday mornings are rough enough during other times of the year, let alone the weekend of the Food & Wine Classic.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t really sure why I had volunteered to attend an early-morning session, but thank god I wasn\u2019t invited to Wine at the Mine (sob) the night before and so I was more or less in decent enough shape to rouse myself and head for the tents.<\/p>\n

The three panelists at Sake Sunday \u2014 June Rodil, Monica Samuels and Devon Broglie \u2014 felt my pain. By a show of hands, at least half the other attendees did, as well. I felt a little better.<\/p>\n

\u201cSake is really easy on your body,\u201d Samuels reassured us. \u201cThere\u2019s no tartaric acid, so it won\u2019t give you a heartburn or hurt your tooth enamel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no hangover-free beverage, but this is a pretty safe bet.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gotten so much out of this class already.<\/p>\n

We discussed and drank our way through six samples of high-end sake, ranging in flavors from key lime and jolly rancher to sweaty gym socks and decomposed body. The drinks spanned from clear and watery to cloudy and unfiltered to what looked like a byproduct of the Gold King Mine spill.<\/p>\n

Sake is actually more akin to beer than wine; it\u2019s brewed and can be consumed soon after rather than aged while the grapes discombobulate or however riesling is made. Sake also isn\u2019t made from your standard table rice; premium sake is brewed with special rice in which the starch component is concentrated at the center of the grain. During the brewing process, the fats and proteins are melted off and the rice shrinks considerably. It\u2019s basically what the It Works! lap band scam was supposed to do. (Nothing is a deader giveaway that something doesn\u2019t work than the product being named It Works!)<\/p>\n

\u201cSakes are so nuanced,\u201d Broglie said. \u201cThey give back what you put into them.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m definitely adding more sake into my drinking rotation, which is currently dominated by Coors Light and whiskey-diet. It\u2019s not just for drinking hot (which you\u2019re really not supposed to do, Rodil said) at a sushi restaurant, but can be incorporated in a party environment, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have cans of sake I like to shotgun,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cYou can have fun with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodil agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing wrong with a sake bomb \u2026 maybe I\u2019ll even do one after.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Benjamin Welch<\/p>\n

Ceviche, Meet Mezcal with Rick Bayless<\/p>\n

You know it\u2019s been a long weekend of tasting, learning and revelry when Rick Bayless says how proud he is of both himself and the audience for posting at a 10:30 a.m. seminar. And with that, he went on to discuss the finer points of ceviche, aguachile and a ceviche cocktail, sustainably farmed fish, agave distillates beyond tequila and Bar S\u00f3tano, his newest restaurant.<\/p>\n

Bayless says to use only ocean fish for ceviche, with freshness being paramount. He advised the audience to \u201cuse all of your senses\u201d when buying fish. Use your eyes to see that the fish is glistening. Use your sense of touch to ensure the flesh is resilient and firm, bouncing right back when pressed. And third, smell it. If it smells like the sea, that\u2019s what you\u2019re after. If it smells like old fish, Bayless said to find another seafood market.<\/p>\n

While ceviche depends more upon fresh ingredients than an actual recipe, fresh lime juice is essential because it is what \u201ccooks\u201d the fish. Fresh green chiles, onions, tomato and cilantro are traditional, however Bayless encourages experimentation. The goal is to have it taste \u201cbright, very fresh and of the moment.\u201d And of course, it is best served with a floater of mezcal.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Allison Pattillo<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meatless treats Who says you can\u2019t be healthy and keep drinking? Led by the duo of chef and Wholesome Wave CEO Michel Nischan and Josh Wesson from The Splendid Table, seminar-goers at \u201cWhy \u2018Wine\u2019 About Going Meatless\u201d were treated to a spread of six drinks and dishes, all sporting meatless proteins and handcrafted by Top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 20:05:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}