Marnie Old

Wine and food is old news. Fine beer with food is new to me, (I have not read Garrett Oliver's "The Brewmaster's Table") and Sam Calagione does a good job of bringing the reputation of beer up to fine dining. I've just imbibed a restaurant commissioned ale at Babbo (and a grappa sampling), Brooklyn Local #1 and Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Ale at Chanterelle, and Brooklyn East IPA at Balthazar, and I can attest that beer holds up to fine dining. The book is a quick read, with enough pairing show more recommendations to use as a reference. Generally the chapters are approachable, though the "which drink wins" summations are snarky, diminishing the whole. OTOH, the recipes and suggestions for holding beer/wine contests look doable.

Any meal good enough for wine is good enough for beer. show less

Good idea, bad execution. Too cutesy and annoying to be taken seriously no matter how often they mention their credentials at you. Along with the other reviewers, I was interested in this book to help me break out of my usual pairings, but this book did not deliver. I love both beer and wine, but the incessant ‘arguing’ from the authors really grated. As did the stupid posed pictures of them with fatuous expressions on their faces. Do adults really act like this over their choice of show more alcoholic beverage? Certainly not ones I’d look to for guidance or even intelligent conversation, that’s for sure. After the initial beverage info, I did not delve much further, skimming the pairings advice and skipping entirely the forced competition between wine and beer.

Despite Marnie’s concise explanation of varietals, tasting and wine making techniques which really was good, I can’t take her seriously. Same goes for the beer guy; it’s obvious he loves his beer (funnily enough the Dogfish brews I’ve had I’ve hated), but he’s so narrow minded that I really don’t want to listen to him or pay attention to what he says. Maybe it’s schtick, but it schtucked. show less

I loved the idea of this book -- discussing and contrasting how both beer and wine can accompany the same foods. And the book delivered about 70% of the time. There was initially a good, elementary discussion of both beer and wine, their history, types, and how to taste each. And most of the discussion of pairing foods with the two beverages was good. First a food category was presented (e.g. shellfish, spicy foods, vegetables), then there was a general discussion of how to pair a wine or show more beer with this class of food, followed by both specific and generic recommendations. (This was particularly important for wines, since finding a specific wine can be very challenging).

However, I thought about 30% of the book was wasted in an attempt to be cute. Their "witty" banter was anything but (note to editor, the word "suck" is still considered obscene by many and has no place in a book that expects to be taken seriously). And the final section of each chapter, "which drink wins" where each author states their case for their suggested pairings was consistently uninformative and uncreative.

I was also disappointed in the photo selection. This was an expensive book to produce, with very glossy pages and lots of photos, but there were far too many photos of the two authors (almost 20) of Marnie and Sam holding glasses or in pseudo boxing positions when, for the same money, more informative photos could have been used. And the recipes in the back, for use in creating your own comparison parties, had great photos of single ingredients like strawberries or chilies, but a photo of the finished dish would have been substantially more informative.

With just a little more editing discipline on the authors (ego was not lacking in either author) this could have been a much better book. Grade A for the idea, however--new ideas in the area of food writing are rare. show less

This is meant to be an answer to the light-hearted beer vs. wine argument. Frankly, I never considered it to be a legitimate argument - because beverage paring with food depends on so much more than the base food. There's the manner in which the food was prepared, there's the occasion, there's the mood that you're in and the all-important, "do I have an 8 AM meeting tomorrow?" question.

I'm far more familiar with wine writing than beer writing, so I'm afraid I have to be a lot harder on show more Marnie Old. For as much of her pedigree as is trotted out at the beginning of the book, I found her wine writing skills to be rather flat. Wine's biggest pitfall is that it's always been seen as a grossly over-complicated drink. By the time one gets into appellations, vintages, aging techniques, mincroclimates and any number of other dizzying facts you can dredge up about wine...well, it's easy to get lost. A great wine writer can cut through all of this confusion and tell you all of the facts without overwhelming you AND leave you enthusiastic for the wine. Marnie, unfortunately, bounces all over the place, dropping facts here and there while failing to leave a great narrative to make me go, "wow! that's why that wine would go so well with that food!" I say this as a wine lover.

Sam's writing is better, but then there's the problem of Sam's brewery. Don't worry if you miss out on it in the introduction, for you will see a Dogfish Head beer offered at least once on about 2/3rds of the tasting "battles." This became increasingly annoying to me, as I felt that this was not so much a chance to espouse the diversity of microbrews as it was a chance to advertise his brewery. Then there's the curious offering of Newcastle, Murphy's Stout and Heineken as "perfect pairs" while passing out about 10 "perfect paring" spots to Dogfish Head brews - were there really no other microbrews in the ENTIRE world to give those select spots to before going to some of the bigger players? (He did win back points for recommending Great Lakes Eliot Ness.)

That aside, the entire "argument" is "wine is classy, beer is for slobs" OR "wine is for snobs and beer is for laid-back, cool people" depending on how you want to read the book. Look, I promise I drink wine in jeans - all the time! I don't feel the need to reach for a cocktail dress every time I get down the stemware! From the onset, Sam and Marnie admitted they've hosted beer vs. wine pairing parties only to discover that the majority of dinners end up with no conclusions. It would have been fantastic to have them come to the conclusion that this was not an argument. Instead **SHOCK** this could have been an opportunity to do a "no matter beer or wine, we're working together to offer you both choices!"

I will give them credit for meticulously going through each of the dishes and explaining if it was the fat content, salt, acidity or any number of other flavors that one needed to look for in order to match a particular beverage to get the most out of a meal. Being a DK book, the photographs are generous and well-done throughout the book (save the idiotic "argument" shots).

This book would be better left to a beginner looking to upgrade from their "I drink the same thing no matter my meal" habits. If you know a hard-core foodie or beverage aficionado, they will have better books in their library already. If I had to pick a good person to give this book to as a gift, I'd aim for a recent college grad and be sure to include a mixed six-pack (good shops will offer this) and a few bottles of wine along with. show less