KWFE is a crowd pleaser
When you look at the literary influences that I most admire (Poe, Hemmingway, and Thompson) you can’t help but notice a pattern. That pattern is one in which you have brilliant genera defining authors who wrote their most seminal works while heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Which raises the interesting question “did these authors drink because it anesthetized the madness that is so often associated with brilliance, or was their natural talent and creativity enhanced because they drank?” This is the question I intended to put to the test as I drank my way through this year’s Kosher Food and Wine Experience. The results will either find me having written a groundbreaking piece on KFWE that redefines the world of culinary journalism, or (as is most likely to occur) it will find that even up to my eyeballs in really excellent wine I will still never be as brilliant as those that I call my influences. Either way it should make for an amusing piece.
The KFWE is probably the most dynamic event in the kosher world. It brings together some of the finest wines in the world with some of the most innovative restaurants and chefs in the tri-state area. This year Royal Wines, the host of KFWE, changed things up by extending the event by several hours to accommodate the growing number of press and trade attendees eager to sample Royal’s wares. Unlike the evening portion of KFWE, the trade portion was exclusively catered by Gemstone Catering and Pomegranate. As I walked along the aisles sampling wines from companies like Covenant, Psagot, and Bokobsa, I also had waiters walking around plying me with delicious items such as beef tongue ragu, sweet breads with mushroom, and mashed potato and while I acknowledge that these are most certainly “eaters” foods, they are also foods that pair exquisitely with a number of the available wine selections.
My personal favorite pairing from the first half of the event was the beef prosciutto and Shiloh’s 2006 Mosaic. The prosciutto was beefy and tender with just enough salt to really complement the superb flavor of the meat, while the Mosaic was bold and oaky with hints of spice and fruit and a nice chocolaty finish. The simplicity of the beef and the complexity of the wine made for a gorgeous pairing the likes of which I have not seen in any other food environment.
The second half of the evening brought the addition of the restaurants. This part of KFWE felt less like a writing assignment and more like an evening with friends. I kept running into people whose culinary talent I revere like Chef Seth Warshaw from Etc., who presented a brilliant barbecued oxtail served over crushed red potatoes. This was his first year at KFWE, and he came out strong. Restaurant Pardes was serving a smoked ribeye tartare with soy, gnochii and nori Rice Krispies. As expected, it was delicious and truly unique. Ari Weiss, owner and chef of Got Cholent Inc., was in his sophomore year as a presenter at KFWE, and he proved that a cholent is not just a cholent, with his French “Chaud-lent” cassolet with duck confit. To call this dish anything but masterful would be an insult as it took a traditional peasant dish and elevated it in a way that would make it perfectly at home if served in the most gourmet restaurant.
The wines showed were equally magnificent. Alexander’s 2007 ‘Alexander the Great’ Cabernet Sauvignon was delicious with its full round flavors of black berries and tobacco. I loved it with Silverleaf Caterers veal Shepard’s Pie. Psagot Winery had their Prat, a port style wine, aged for sixteen months in oak barrels. It had deep full flavors of cherries and plum with a healthy dose of oak and spice, finishing with the most amazing chocolate flavor that I was floored by how amazingly excellent it was. Of all things I enjoyed the Prat with, I found that it went best with Shalom Bombay’s chicken korma, which was cooked in a cashew paste and mild Indian spices. The sweet and savory chicken complements the sweetness of the wine charmingly, and made for a really alternative pairing. For me, little things like the ability to pair Indian food with a port really illustrates the importance of KFWE in that it provides an especially broad opportunity to sample wine and food pairings that are not available anywhere else. The downside of course is that even having spent six hours sampling, and having vacillated from sobriety to inebriation and back no less than five times, I was still unable to cover the full spectrum of pairings. But that is what keeps me coming back every year, provides me further opportunity to fine new and unique parings while sampling some of the most exquisite food and wine out there. The only trick is not degenerating into a gibbering wine sodden mess while I am doing it.
