For a dish of smoked eel with beetroot and horseradish cream, he suggests Bourgogne Aligot?Savenni?s or (my favourite choice) Aquavit. These matches are grouped under the heading "Fine wine", of which more in a moment.Roux departs from most writers on this subject in taking an extremely latitudinarian approach. He rarely says that you must find a particular wine or style of wine to suit a particular dish, choosing instead to offer a range of choices - with some of these awesomely broad. The book is organised as a cookbook, with recipes both for fancy cooking and for humble home or bistro dishes.
There's a chapter for each stage of the meal, from pre-dinner to dessert, and in the recipes for more rarefied dishes it's the wine that takes precedence. And a new volume by Michel Roux Jr, who has run the venerable Le Gavroche in London since 1994, is one of those books.Matching Food and Wine (Weidenfeld Nicolson, £20) is subtitled "Classic and not so classic combinations", and this tells a lot of the story. Some books, however, take a different approach that calls for a good deal more paper. Most of the essential information about food and wine matching can be printed, in my view, on two sheets of A4 paper. My favourite advice on food and wine matching - and one I've quoted in these pages before, so apologies if it sounds familiar - appeared a few years ago on the back label of some Australian red or other. It read something like: "This wine will go well with most foods that you usually eat with red wine." I don't have the wording exact, but the spirit is intact.
When you're looking for a wine to match a dish, you will usually land in the correct zone by following common sense. But whole books about food and wine matching continue to appear, from writers possessing a more highly developed form of common sense than mine I don't often pay them a great deal of attention. There is also superb produce from a well-stocked deli and just-what-I-feel-like-eating food from the caf?a tartine of red and yellow peppers with torn mozzarella, or a platter of Spanish jamon with piquillo peppers and manchego cheese.Email Terry Durack about where you've eaten lately at t.durack independent.co.uk. Inside, they have a space divided between casual brasserie/bar and white-clothed dining room, and fine Scottish produce given a modern European tweak: Oban scallops with cauliflower pur? pan-fried duck breast with beetroot risotto and cured salmon with buckwheat blinis.Ceci Paolo Caff?ar 21 High Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, tel: 01531 632 976 Aussie Patricia Harrison has created a foodie oasis in the heart of this picturesque market town, selling cookery books, clothing, kitchenware, furniture and lighting. Heaven forbid you can't fit into that size-eight frock upstairs.Forth Floor Harvey Nichols, 30-34 St Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, tel: 0131 524 8350 On the top floor of Harvey Nichols' Edinburgh store, diners get city views from the Castle to the Firth of Forth. He can leave the waitstaff alone - they are caring, friendly, chatty, mostly on the ball, and eager to please.
