Last night, for the first time in ages (blame rookie motherhood), I cooked from what used to be my go-to cookbook: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison, the founding chef of Greens in San Francisco. Madison’s book is so well-organized and beautifully laid out, and turning back to it allowed me to stumble upon its charming section on wine pairing.
Finding the right wine to pair with a particular meal or type of cuisine is a very technology-friendly undertaking—which is why there are about a zillion apps for that. But when you want to spend more than a millisecond choosing wine to go with Sunday dinner—when you want to understand why eggplant calls for Chenin Blanc or olives for Chianti—consider looking in one of your favorite cookbooks. Or wine books, for that matter—I also love Karen MacNeil‘s treatment of this issue in her Wine Bible. Among Karen’s recommendations: “Pair great with great, humble with humble” (so no In-N-Out with that Chateau Margaux), and salt (think soy-flavored Asian dishes, Stilton cheese) plus sweet (Riesling, Port) equals stunning.
The Home Glass 
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