Foreword to Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants
By Kermit Lynch
Years ago it was notoriously difficult to find anything decent to eat in Hawaii. Once I was there on vacation and had reached the desperation stage. In a little wine shop near my hotel in Honolulu, I asked if there wasn’t at least one restaurant serving edible food. “Why don’t you try Roy’s?” came the answer, so I got the family in a taxi and off we went.
At the table, I opened the wine list first, as usual. My wife told me I looked like a cartoon character, with my eyes bulging out of their sockets. There, on the wine list, in Hawaii, obtainable, was the Savennières from Château d’Epiré, one of my favorite dry whites, but unknown, esoteric, hard to sell. What the hell was it doing in Hawaii?
I roamed down the list and saw all sorts of unusual selections from France. But not just any wines; these were the dangerous ones. I asked the waiter if the wine buyer was on the premises, and that’s how I met Randy Caparoso. We became friends and he spread the word about a lot of my rather obscure wine imports. He loves making discoveries as much as I do, so we hit it off.
What is a good palate? In my experience, every palate is different. The person who can identify ten Bordeaux châteaux in a blind tasting may not be able to tell which are good and which are banal. I have never met the perfect palate, one that comprises all the tasting skills and talents.
What sets Randy apart? First, his open-mindedness. He appreciates diversity; in fact he adores diversity, and can appreciate all styles from all the world’s wine regions. That is a great virtue, because it means that his palate is not deformed by preconceptions.
Secondly, he is a master at wine and food combinations. At Roy’s he has regaled me with combinations that had me stunned by their perfection and unpredictability. This talent comes from an incredible imagination—which allows him to foresee how a certain wine might act alongside a certain plate—and his powers of analysis, breaking down wines and dishes into their important components so that his imagination has something to work with.
Randy’s stories are a lot of fun. There are a lot of lessons that can be learned; but never fear, the homework is delicious.
Kermit Lynch
