Dancing Spoon

Gaston Lenôtre 1920-2009

by J. Michael Wheeler
If you’ve visited France, or have been fortunate enough to have lived there, you’ve most certainly stood and stared, like a small child, wide-eyed at the treasures lying just beyond the windows of the pastry shops. With their artistic displays of artistic delights, the French patisserie captures even those of us who are not often mesmerized by a dessert tray.

Lenôtre Paris has been a pinnacle of the patisserie world since 1957 when Gaston and his wife Colette bought a store at 44 rue d’Auteuil, in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris. It was an immediate succès and today the familiar blue and gold logo tops 52 boutiques in 13 countries, a cooking school, a Michelin three-star restaurant, and chic cafes.

I have been one of those fortunates who have lived in Paris. I certainly allowed myself to be seduced into more than one Lenôtre Paris. Those patisseries have become one of the icons in my mind of my time in that city. Toques off to Chef Lenôtre.

---

Hand selected books are at Foodie's Emporium! Click here.

---

Blue Nuns: A Foodie’s Profile 1

Foodie About a

by J. Michael Wheeler

Blue Nuns and Coors Beer
I began my creative life as a writer. I wrote fiction for five years and during that time I was a very successful bartender; my writing, not so. I had begun tending bar at the end of my second year in college in San Diego. Soon my college studies and restaurants found an inevitable synchronicity: I had just discovered the writers based in the Parisian café life of the 1920’s (think Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast) and I was introduced to the world of food at the restaurants where I worked. And suddenly my path became clear: with Hemingway as my guide I’d write short declarative sentences and eat at well-lit Parisian tables.

Social Network for You!

Foodies For

A Community Especially for Foodies!
Dancing Spoon has just launched a social network especially for Foodies! It's easy to join and entirely FREE! Start a wine-lovers group, share recipes, join a discussion about culinary travel, trade grilling tips, write your own food blog, upload photos (and even videos), join a discussion about farmer's markets, add events to the calendar, and even organize a picnic. Visit the Dancing Spoon Community.

Just Like You
Connect to people who are passionate about the culinary world. You'll be part of an exciting community of foodies, just like you. And you can even invite your friends to join.

Contest: Name Your Community
This is your Foodie Community and it deserves a great name! Community just doesn't sizzle does it? So we're having a Name This Place Contest! Start cooking up a batch of tasty names. We'll select the crème de la crème and then let the whole community vote for the winner.

Speaking of winners, the winner will get a $25 gift certificate to the Dancing Spoon Foodies Store and the top finalists will all receive our you gotta have one Foodie Hat.

Become a Charter Member: It's FREE
Become a charter member of the Dancing Spoon Community and hook up with Foodies from around the world. Who know's, your next best friend may be halfway around the globe! And remember, membership is entirely FREE.

Join Now.

---

Newsletter

---

A California Wine Pioneer

World The Wine

by David Haley

Warren Winiarski 
Warren Winiarski was among the early visionaries to believe that the Cabernet Sauvignon grape was uniquely suited to the Napa Valley, and he focused on locating the ideal site that ultimately would produce a classically-styled wine that reflected, but was not overpowered by, the region. Stag's Leap Vineyards (now known as S.L.V.) was planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in 1970, and the winery was built near the vineyard in 1972.

Four years later, Warren Winiarski's 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, produced from the vineyard's first commercial crop, stunned the wine world when it bested four top-ranked Bordeaux wines, including two First Growths, in a blind tasting held in Paris. At that time, the premium California wines were considered curiosities, hardly in the same class as the best French wines.

This seismic event has been described as "sparking a staggering revolution in vineyard technology," "a major turning point in consumers' attitudes," and "a moment that shook the global wine establishment to its roots."

A 2005 book documented the tasting, Judgment of Paris: California vs France and the 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine by George Taber.

-David Haley

---

As president of Haley Marketing Group, a New England based wine brokerage, David Haley travels to wine regions around the world to discover exceptional wine values. (He calls it work, but that’s debatable.) His background in wine spans sixteen years in the wholesale and wine import business with some of the most prestigious importers in America.

Have a wine question? Ask .

Your Host

Wheeler J. Michael

Living, Cooking, and Eating
J. Michael Wheeler has lived, cooked, and eaten in Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, London, Paris and a small port town in New England.

He is a restaurateur, writer, publisher, jazz & wine festival producer, marketing and art director, graphic designer, former Parisian resident, dedicated foodie, and, most importantly, a single father.

If you ask him what his favorite wine is, he’d ask you what does he get to eat with it. If you pressed with the “one type of wine on a secluded island” question, he’d say “good bubbles.”

And if you asked him which one cookbook he’d take to the island he’d answer “Joy of Cooking, without question. What other cookbook has recipes from tuna salad to grilled ostrich?” On an island, you need to be resourceful.

Why is he publishing DancingSpoon.com? “Like any passion you have, the next best thing to doing it, is talking about it. DancingSpoon.com is a place for us to get together and share ideas and recipes and things that we’ve learned about the world of eating. Because, as we say here, there’s more to eating than just food.”

And now I'm pleased to bring you The Kitchen Store at DancingSpoon for those difficult to locate products, kitchen gadgets, and ingredients.

Looking for a particular ingredient or product? Let us know and we'll try to find it. Have a unique product you'd like to sell here. We'd like to hear from you too! Just want to say "hello?" Email me or leave a comment below!

Seed Newsvine

---

Have a question or comment? Email me here