"Cream of the Bay Area's New Crop of Cookbooks"!

The Winemaker Cooks was featured in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle!
"From regional Italian cooking to foraging for wild food, this season abounds with cookbooks from local authors. These five, some filled with personal experiences, others with tantalizing pictures, particularly piqued our interest."  
The Winemaker Cooks: Menus, Parties and Pairings, by Christine Hanna.

The president of Hanna Winery & Vineyards in Sonoma County has developed seasonal recipes revolving around wine, with inspiration for year-round entertaining.

As she introduces each season, Hanna describes the state of her vineyards and garden, then provides five menus, such as an autumn dinner with spicy eggplant caviar with pita crisps, pan-seared hanger steak with porcini-Merlot reduction, and pear tart tatin with ginger ice cream. She stays close to home with her wine pairings, suggesting a Sonoma or Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.

The recipes are approachable and the ingredients readily available and the photographs capture the beauty of the food. To round things out, her concise answers to questions like "What are sulfites?" are sprinkled among the pages.

"The Winemaker Cooks: Menus, Parties and Pairings," by Christine Hanna (Chronicle Books, 239 pages, $35).

- Lynne Char Bennett

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