Chef Lisa Giffen of Audrey restaurant in L.A. shares her recipe for a late-summer fish dish topped with tart green tomato salsa verde and basil salad. Pair it with a lush white wine such as Godello from Spain or California Sauvignon Blanc.
Tom Colicchio—the chef behind Craft, Riverpark and Temple Court restaurants in New York City—pairs fresh grilled oysters with lemon chile ramp butter and an easygoing white wine, like a Pinot Blanc from Long Island.
Learn how to make this bright, elegant salad with white asparagus, peas and a rich, ranch-like dressing. Wine Spectator recommends white wines from the Loire Valley and New Zealand to pair with it!
Looking to shake things up with your next roast chicken? Try this twist on the classic dish by chef Lee Wolen of Award of Excellence winner Boka. Plus, Wine Spectator recommends a Sauvignon Blanc– and Sémillon-based white and a Rhône red as ideal complements!
Whether you're looking for a last-minute weeknight meal or the star dish of your next dinner party, this recipe for parchment paper-wrapped cod and vegetables is sure to satisfy. Plus, Wine Spectator recommends a bright, acidic white wine pairing that can also be used as an ingredient.
Inspired by L.A. street food, this weeknight Wine Spectator recipe brings together mango and chile-lime salt to give a big boost of flavor to chicken breasts. Serve with tortillas alongside and a refreshing, juicy California Sauvignon Blanc.
Chef Mark McCain of Jeffrey’s in Austin, Texas, shares with Wine Spectator his recipe for shellfish risotto with saffron butter. Try it with a vibrant wine, such as a white Bordeaux!
Make any meal festive with this Wine Spectator recipe that can do triple duty as an entrée, appetizer or party snack. Pair with a zippy Spanish rosado or a fresh white wine!
Branzino is stuffed with tomatoes, onions and olives, then cooked whole with lemons, in this recipe from Wine Spectator. The dish calls for a white wine with vibrant acidity, such as Albariño or Sauvignon Blanc.
These smoked BBQ wings are served with an Alabama white barbecue sauce, from chef Reinaldo Alfonso of Frankford Hall and Fette Sau in Philadelphia. Wine Spectator suggests value white and red wines for pairing.
Get the party started with this homemade popcorn recipe from pastry chef and sweets wizard Hedy Goldsmith, who serves up her take on caramel peanut popcorn. Wine Spectator recommends refreshing Sauvignon Blancs to go with.
This fresh fennel and pear salad recipe by Wine Spectator editor at large Harvey Steiman pairs well with a crisp white wine like Sauvignon Blanc.
The citrus flavors in this recipe by Wine Spectator editor at large Harvey Steiman calls for a crisp white wine like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
The tarragon in this recipe by Wine Spectator editor at large Harvey Steiman will match well with a crisp white wine like a grassy Sauvignon Blanc.
Chill out with this lobster roll recipe from New England's Castle Hill Inn. Plus, Wine Spectator recommends some Sauvignon Blancs to match.
This Wine Spectator recipe comes with prep tips for cooking stuffed chicken and blanching beans. Pair them with an Alentejo or a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Chef Michelle Bernstein’s kosher, vegetarian recipe calls for a kosher wine.
Miami-based chef Michelle Bernstein’s recipe is perfect for trying out a new kosher wine.
This Wine Spectator recipe welcomes warmer weather with a dish of breaded, pan-fried fish, topped with butter mixed with walnuts, pecans and onions. A bright white wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc from France, makes the perfect pairing.
Liven up your party with these tasty fried morsels and a snappy white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc.
Enjoy this traditional Jewish appetizer, which makes a perfect party recipe for Hannukah or any holiday, with a spicy, mineral-infused white wine.
Capture the flavors of summer with this bright, nutty seafood recipe from Wine Spectator, paired with a refreshing white wine.
Wine Spectator shares a fish recipe that adds elegance and flavor to Arctic char and rice with sautéed fennel and onions, orange and capers. Arctic char matches easily with a range of citrusy white wines, from Sauvignon Blanc to Grüner Veltliner to Soave Classico.
Pastry chef and cookbook author Emily Luchetti's dessert is a simple treat for two. Her napoleon recipe layers apple compote with delicate almond wafers, a dollop of crème fraîche and a drizzle of caramel.
Wine Spectator shares a foolproof technique for cooking a whole fish. Baking the fish in a salt crust keeps the flesh moist and tender. Pair with a fresh salad and a bright white wine, like an Italian Sauvignon Blanc, for a complete meal.
Christopher Laramie, executive chef at Hog Island Oyster Co.'s San Francisco bar, shares a crowd-pleasing recipe that is casual, easy to prepare and perfect for summer entertaining. The "hogwash" topping takes a traditional mignonette and adds cilantro and jalapeño. Hog Island general manager Greg Hinds pairs the raw oysters with a Grüner Veltliner and Albariño blend, a white wine that balances salinity and tropical fruit notes.
Christopher Laramie, executive chef at Hog Island Oyster Co.'s San Francisco bar, shares a crowd-pleasing recipe with the classic summer flavors of basil, tomatoes and chiles. Hog Island general manager Greg Hinds pairs the clams with a Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.
This recipe for chilled salmon in a mustard seed crust, courtesy of The Inn at Little Washington's chef-owner, Patrick O'Connell, is the ideal dish to prepare ahead and serve at an outdoor picnic. Pair it with a California Sauvignon Blanc or with a rosé wine from Bandol or elsewhere in southern France.
Here's an inexpensive, springtime chicken recipe from Wine Spectator that can work year round. Pair with a fresh white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc or a Rioja, to stand up to the acidity and herbs in the sauce.
This Wine Spectator adaptation of a Jacques Pépin recipe relies on a classic French technique and consists of familiar ingredients, nothing fancy—just chicken done right. Pair it with a white Bordeaux wine, an aromatic blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc.
Warm up with this winning recipe for Swiss-style cheese fondue from the Swiss Chalet restaurant in Vail, Colo.
Aldea chef Mendes shares a healthy seafood recipe taken from his new book, My Portugal: Recipes and Stories. This shrimp appetizer explodes with textures of stewed tomatoes and crisp okra, brightened by the national Portuguese hot sauce, piri piri. Pair it with a refreshing white wine from Portugal, Vinho Verde.
Here's a Wine Spectator recipe for grilled tuna steaks with an orzo salad that can be served warm or cool; the entire meal can easily be scaled up for entertaining a group or down for a elegant but casual dinner for two. Pair it with a refreshing white wine, such as a Vinho Verde from Portugal.
Famed French chef Michel Guérard shares a summer menu with Wine Spectator, with recipes taken from his new cookbook, Eat Well and Stay Slim: The Essential Cuisine Minceur. His lemon sole entrée updates a traditional brown-butter sauce from Grenoble to one based on the lighter components of soy sauce and vinaigrette. Try it with white wine such as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, whose herbal and citrus flavors play off the lemons and capers in this fish dish.
Famed French chef Michel Guérard shares a summer menu with Wine Spectator, with recipes taken from his new cookbook, Eat Well and Stay Slim: The Essential Cuisine Minceur. His tomato tart appetizer capitalizes on one of the season’s most precious gems: ripe, juicy tomatoes, preferably heirloom. Pair it with a refreshing white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc.
Wine Spectator shares a weeknight recipe for soft-shell crabs, which are in season May through August, that are pan-fried and dressed with what's fresh in the summer farmers market, such as sweet corn, tomato and asparagus. A fried dish wants a wine that acts as a palate cleanser, so try a crisp Italian white, Sauvignon Blanc or sparkling wine.
If you want something tasty and elegant, but more or less foolproof, try Carla Hall's recipe for Chicken in Dijon Cream, from the former Top Chef contender and The Chew co-host's new book, Carla's Comfort Foods. Add a crusty baguette and green salad and pair it with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to round out the meal.
Spring calls for dinners that straddle the difference between cozy and light, and this take on roast fish with potatoes is a perfect example. In this Wine Spectator recipe, the Iberian staples of potatoes and cod get dressed up with lemon, thyme and olives for a weeknight meal. Pair with a light, fruity style of Sauvignon Blanc.
At the fine-dining restaurant Dio Deka, housed in the Hotel Los Gatos, a glance at the menu reveals the inspiration for this San Francisco Bay Area dining room: Greece. Chef Jeff Fitzgerald shared a recipe with Wine Spectator for tsipoura, a whole grilled Mediterranean dorade seasoned with lemon, oregano and thyme. A classic wine pairing is a Greek white such as Assyrtiko from Santorini.
This Wine Spectator recipe features a riff on a green goddess sauce, a creamy dressing brightened by handfuls of fresh herbs. In this version, tangy Greek yogurt and mayonnaise are blended with avocado, basil and lime juice to keep the dish fresh, while the final addition of prepared horseradish brings a mild kick and just enough vinegar to keep this dressing light on its feet. A savory, herbal white wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc, provides a backbone for the assertive dressing.
Eric Kleinman, chef and partner at New York' 'inoteca, shares his recipe with Wine Spectator for whole roasted chicken, brined with herbs and spices and stuffed with citrus fruits and red onion. It's perfect for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holidays, but is good for any occasion and pairs well with a wide range of red and white wines.
Dessert soufflés generally fall under the "do not attempt" list for entertaining at home—too much to do at the last minute and way too fussy. But a cheese soufflé is a different species entirely. It's basically foolproof and makes a good base for experimenting with seasonal flavors, such as sweet summer corn with light, tangy goat cheese. This Wine Spectator recipe, served with a simple arugula salad and a Sauvignon Blanc, makes for a perfect late-summer weeknight dinner.
Chef Marco Canora's food tends to have clear, direct flavors, though it is often more forward-thinking than Canora gives himself credit for. Even for this asparagus risotto recipe shared with Wine Spectator, he has a trick or two up his sleeve. What he calls Easter broth gives it a meaty heft, and a quail egg yolk contributes to the lush texture. For a wine pairing, he chooses a Sauvignon Blanc from France's Loire Valley.
In this salad recipe from Union Square Hospitality Group's cookbook, Family Table: Favorite Staff Meals From Our Restaurants to Your Home, there is no oil in the dressing, just maple syrup spiked with smoked paprika. The allure of this salad lies in its surprising combination of ingredients—and in the simple preparation, which requires only toasting pecans, some chopping and slicing, and mixing the dressing.
At Union Square Events, this recipe shared with Wine Spectator is what's become known as "holiday pork," a brined and slow-cooked roast with a citrus-and-apple-cider tang. You can slice, shred or cut it into chunks and crisp it in a skillet for instant carnitas. The herbs and citrus fruit in the brine reflect the flavors found in California and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
Among the best things to come out of the new Italian cuisine revival in America is the notion that you can dress up basic toast with a few simple toppings, call it bruschetta and make a meal out of it. In this recipe from Wine Spectato, creamy, fresh, whole-milk ricotta makes an ideal base for experimenting with this template through the seasons, starting with the first asparagus of spring. Pair it with a lively white wine like Sauvignon Blanc.
Need a new recipe for entertaining during Passover or other Jewish holidays? San Francisco-based kosher caterer Rebecca Joseph of 12 Tribes Kosher Foods shares this variation of potato and celeriac kugelettes, which she serves with a lamb dish along with a simple salad.
Baltimore crab cakes have proliferated there since J.W. Faidley Seafood, the Chesapeake Bay area's most revered purveyor of crab patties, first opened its doors in 1886. The restaurant provided Wine Spectator with a simple version of the Faidley's Famous Crab Cake, minus a few secret ingredients. Fresh lump crabmeat—slightly sweet, slightly briny and always delicate—pairs well with a wide range of white wines, from Albariño to Vermentino, as well as sparkling wines and dry rosés.
Like many dishes associated with holidays, potato latkes tend to show up once a year, and then in abundance. Wine Spectator's recipe makes a case to put them into more regular rotation: They're silly easy to make, require few ingredients and score extremely high on the deliciousness scale.
The phrase "cream of mushroom" has a staid reputation in the culinary world, thanks to canned soup’s role as a star ingredient in old-fashioned casseroles. But homemade mushroom sauce is delicious and easy, packing a lot of flavor into this Wine Spectator recipe for pan-seared chicken with egg noodles.
Wine Spectator adapts the grilled cheese sandwich for warm weather with a light and tangy goat cheese filling. This recipe calls for a thin layer of ribbons of fresh zucchini, which anchors the dish in the summer season, while minced green olives add savory complexity. Round out the meal with a simple salad of ripe tomatoes and basil and a citrusy, stony white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc.
This simple Wine Spectator sautéed shrimp dish takes inspiration from Romesco, a rustic, nutty Spanish sauce, borrowing the ingredients—tomatoes, peppers, garlic bread and almonds—but skipping the step of throwing them in the blender. There are plenty of possibilities for a wine match; look for a minerally white with good acidity.
This Wine Spectator recipe essentially deconstructs a classic breaded chicken sandwich, placing it in a fresh green spring salad. Instead of coating and frying chicken breasts in a bread crumb and Parmesan mixture, each of the ingredients is prepared simply on its own, then tossed together with peppery baby arugula. A citrusy Sauvignon Blanc, such as one from France's Loire Valley, pairs well with the asparagus and the lemon juice in the dressing.
Chef Chris Jones, of Brix restaurant in the Napa Valley town of Yountville, serves up a recipe for a luxurious poached oyster dish, mixed with a confit of leeks in butter and an easy vermouth cream sauce, then topped with herbs and salmon caviar and served with toasted brioche. For the wine pairing, a Sauvignon Blanc with good acidity, structure and minerality provides contrast to this rich, slightly sweet dish.
What to do in the shoulder season between winter and full-blown spring? The answer: Have a Wine Spectator favorite-fish tacos, but roast everything to add a weather-appropriate depth to an otherwise very green and fresh dish. When looking for a wine to pour, think citrusy and crisp. You’ll be mostly matching the wine to the sauce and cilantro. Plenty of white wines we tried fit the bill, but a Sauvignon Blanc stood up best to the cilantro.
This Wine Spectator recipe is a good example of how the preparation method can influence a wine pairing. Salmon and Pinot Noir, for instance, are a go-to match among the yes-you-can-pair-red-wine-and-fish set, but here, with the light tangy sauce and delicate poaching, a zippy white such as a Sauvignon Blanc-based white Bordeaux makes more sense.
Wine Spectator puts together a food-and-beverage pairing menu in which the beverage isn't wine, but beer. This recipe, from Salads, by Leonard Schwartz and Sheila Linderman, would make a nice complement to a Sauvignon Blanc, but it also goes well with a wheat beer, which is fresh and clean with citrus notes and has the ability to handle the bitter greens, vinaigrette and goat cheese.
Ruth Van Waerebeek, executive chef for Concha y Toro, shared a simply elegant but tasty recipe for Cucumber Rolls with Shrimp Ceviche and Spicy Oriental-style Dip Sauce with Wine Spectator. We also included a video of how she put it together.
The origins of this Dungeness crab recipe reflect the background of Mark Dommen, chef and partner at One Market restaurant in San Francisco, who riffs on a classic combination by substituting local Asian pears for apples and using spices popular with his Latino cooks. Sauvignon Blanc is a match made in heaven for shellfish. Get the recipe and suggested wines from Wine Spectator.
If the rules say red wine with meat, why does sommelier François Chartier, author of a revelatory new book on matching food and wine, suggests to Wine Spectator, Sauvignon Blanc with rich, long-cooked lamb shanks? It's the seasoning, which centers upon anise aromatics.
Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California helped forge California's cuisine and the farm-to-table movement. Here, she shares with Wine Spectator a dish tailor-made for wine lovers: a baked goat cheese salad, a perfect pairing with Sauvignon Blanc.
For harvest in the northern hemisphere, Wine Spectator asked vintners to share their favorite fall recipes. Make the most of the warm weather’s last hurrah with this recipe for an early harvest galette stuffed with tomatoes, caramelized onions, goat cheese and Niçoise olives from Cakebread's culinary director, Brian Streeter. This savory rustic tart combines a rich, buttery crust, salty olives and the natural sweetness of the onions and tomatoes to pack a lot of flavor.
