The Omaha Metro Food & Wine Gazette May 2024 by Omaha Magazine

The Omaha Metro

Event Report:

Color Blind Wine Tasting at Omaha Field Club

Cooking Class at the IWFS Great Weekend New Orleans Part 1

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Event Report: Color Blind Wine Tasting at Omaha Field Club

Written by Tom Murnan, Photos by Tom Murnan

What an intriguing idea. A tasting of red wines without looking at their color. Color provides clues, like Pinot Noir is a lighter red than Cabernet. So how to make a tasting color blind? Why, put all the wines in black wine glasses! But to get 5 glasses a person times 25 people meant driving to Kansas City to rent them. Luckily, our hosts split the duties, with Amanda Harrington picking the glasses up, and John Matthews returning them. I could smell humiliation in the air as we sat down. Black glasses cut off more clues than one would think. And blind tastings are difficult all by themselves, without extra roadblocks. The wines were poured into glasses at 4:15 pm, so they breathed for 2 hours when we sat down. Our job was to identify which glass had a Syrah, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chianti, or a Rhône blend. When the fog cleared, no one got all 5 correct. But three ladies identified three correctly. Kudos to Patti Hipple, Michelle Hyder, and Tracy Tylkowski.

The regular chef had quit the day before, but not to worry. His replacement, Chef Montana Childress, did a great job. The charcuterie & cheese was delightfully displayed in a tiered display. The Warm Spinach Salad came to table topped with a filigree halo with edible flower. We had dueling reds on the Filet Mignon course, featuring Daou Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 2015 vs. Château Fonplegade, a Bordeaux blend which I found more elegant than its powerful counterpart from Paso Robles, CA. The Warm Banana Bread Pudding with Bourbon Bacon Sauce was decadent and so moist, with the bacon being the pièce de résistance.

Thanks so much to Amanda and John, the unexpected Chef Montana, and the wait staff for an imaginative tasting and delicious meal.

After that Covid thing, my “Going Out” clothes missed me so much that they hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe.

2024

MAY

Cooking Class at the IWFS Great Weekend New Orleans Part 1

Written by Tom Murnan, Photos by Tom Murnan

One of the highlights of the New Orleans Great Weekend was our cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. We were treated to the lively and witty Chef Joe St. Paul, our culinary guru and his faithful assistant, Devon Davis. The class was not just about cooking. When we gather around the table, it is more a sense of community than just a style of food. There are two main styles of New Orleans cuisine: Creole and Cajun. Cajun came from displaced French Canadians who were defeated by the English in the 18th Century. Rather than swear fealty to the English king, they moved from Acadia (now Nova Scotia) down to the French colony of Louisiana. They settled in the countryside around New Orleans. Creole (the word comes from the Spanish criollo, meaning of Spanish descent born elsewhere) is the other great cuisine and comes from the city of New Orleans itself. Creole uses tomatoes, Cajun doesn’t.

Both cuisines were examples of diversity, before that word became the political force it is today. French, Spanish, European immigrants, African slaves, all developed the culture, intermarried and contributed. When they arrived, they didn’t know where the next meal was going to come from. The Cajuns, for example, were poor, and most everything was a one pot meal. They had to use what was at hand, be it alligator, rice, crab, crawfish, etc. But the idea that a culinary concept which comes from somewhere else then gets modified here is what happened in the New Orleans melting pot of races. Cooking, eating, and dining with someone is transforming. New Orleans cuisine is not challenging once you understand the nuts and bolts of how it is constructed. For example, understanding roux is essential for both styles of cooking. We will tackle that in next month’s installment.