I first met Karen MacNeil more than a decade ago when she was part of the teaching team at the Brown-Forman Center for Global Wine Education that I attended in Mendocino County, California. During the seminar, we learned to taste, building our own wine-tasting memory while understanding the subtleties of terroir, vineyard, and vintner. After tasting well over 100 different wines, we could identify wines by grape, country of origin and more. Karen had warned me that to continue to be able to do so, I needed to constantly train all the time, educating my palate by tasting a variety of wines all the time, as she does.

Karen, who in 2004 won the James Beard Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional of the year, just  revised and updated her popular “The Wine Bible.” You might catch up with her during her cross-country tour, or you can learn a bit about her here in our interview.

 

– bonnie

BonnieBOTB

 

Which food product or gadget would you never give up? A wine glass because it’s impossible to cook creatively without a glass of wine in your hand.

What do you like to serve when you entertain? I always hand a person a glass of Champagne when I take their coat. It is the first thing I do. I think appetizers should always be simple with very few ingredients. Grilled shrimp with fennel is a perfect example. It should be very singular, not particularly complex. I always like to serve homey comfort food. The more something reminds the guest of a grandmother the better the dish is, in my opinion. For me, I like dishes from Ireland and Scotland – something like lamb stew and barley. I also never serve just one wine with a course. I always serve at least two to enliven the conversation at the table. Desserts are best when small and homey. The very best dessert is a plate of homemade cookies.

Describe your “last meal?” I would start with Champagne and oysters. Then I would have lobster salad with a bottle of Puligny-Montrachet. The main course would be roast lamb with an old Bordeaux. And for dessert just a very tiny piece of vanilla cake.

What food is your secret guilty pleasure? I could eat cookies all day long.

What is your go-to neighborhood restaurant? Press in St. Helena because they have aged steak that is almost impossible to find as a consumer. They have their own rancher and butcher and the ability to hang and age meat in a way that was done 100 years ago. All of the vegetables are grown on their own farm. They also have the best cocktails in Napa Valley.

What is one food product most people don’t know about, but should? Spanish pimenton. It’s a little like spicy Hungarian paprika but more smoky and intense. I use it as a secret weapon in all kinds of dishes. It has a real dramatic undertone that picks up flavors in everything from frittatas to Asian stir fry.

Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it: I’m usually able to rescue most things just short of disaster. They don’t always look pretty but they taste good.

Who was your most influential mentor? For me, it wasn’t a single person but the ability as a young woman to travel the great culinary capitals of France, Spain and Italy before food and wine were really global. That was the greatest teacher.

To follow Karen MacNeil on Twitter, click here.