A Menu Planning Must-Have

The other day, my husband shared this AMAZING online tool with me that I just couldn't wait to share with you!

It's an interactive Food and Wine Pairing guide, and all I can say is

Where have you been all my life?!

Ok ok, not to be overly dramatic, but this thing is awesome. Planning a dinner for friends, family, parties big and small? Trying to impress your significant other? Check this out!

There are two ways to use the guide.

The first option is to match food to wine. In other words, you have a type of food that you plan to prepare, and you want to know what will pair well with it.

So, let's pretend you're starting with a cheese appetizer. You click the little icon that looks like cheese. But then the tool starts to work and you get three options: Blue (Bleu) Cheese, Hard, Flavorful Cheese, and Soft, Rich Cheese. Since you just bought some awesome reggiano, you choose Hard, Flavorful cheese.

And magic!



Amarone goes great with reggiano, but other choices are cabernet sauvingon and Montepulciano. How cool!

Ok, now on to the meat course. Yes we're still playing pretend.

Say you planned to make chicken. More specifically, a nice slow-roasted chicken.

BAM!



Chardonnay, or white Burgundy!

Seriously man, I'm in love.

But wait! There's more!

Say you want to plan a menu, but you want it to go well with a bottle of wine you already have...

The tool also has another option to match wine to food!

I'll use a real-life example for this. As an anniversary gift, Chris' parents gave us a bottle of Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir. (yum!) What should I make with it?



Well, I should clearly pick a lighter-flavored dish. I like the suggestion of salmon! But look in that last box on the bottom right side. I love that this tool also tells me what not to pair with this wine! With this knowledge, I know to make a very clean preparation of the salmon, not a butter-heavy preparation.

I am so glad someone put together such an easy-to-use tool. Having the option to go wine to food or food to wine, and also including things that don't pair well in addition to what does pair well is absolutely invaluable!

Have some fun playing around the site... I know I will!



Note: I was not contacted by the maker of this site to do a review or to share it with you all. I honestly just think it's that cool :)