Introduction

Can you pair pickled foods with wine, or will their vinegarized flavours ruin the wine? Which wines pair best with soft-shell crab? What goes into great food photography, whether in a magazine or cookbook?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I’m chatting with author Barbara Scott-Goodman.

You can find the wines we discussed here.

 

Giveaway

Three of you will win a copy of Barbara Scott-Goodman’s terrific book Wine Time: 70+ Recipes for Simple Bites That Pair Perfectly with Wine.

 

How to Win

To qualify, all you have to do is email me at [email protected] and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast.

It takes less than 30 seconds: On your phone, scroll to the bottom here, where the reviews are, and click on “Tap to Rate.”

After that, scroll down a tiny bit more and click on “Write a Review.” That’s it!

I’ll choose one person randomly from those who contact me.

Good luck!

 

Join me on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Live Video

Join the live-stream video of this conversation on Wednesday at 7 pm eastern on Instagram Live Video, Facebook Live Video or YouTube Live Video.

I’ll be jumping into the comments as we watch it together so that I can answer your questions in real-time.

I want to hear from you! What’s your opinion of what we’re discussing? What takeaways or tips do you love most from this chat? What questions do you have that we didn’t answer?

Want to know when we go live?

Add this to your calendar:

 

 

 

Highlights

• How did Barbara’s passion for creating recipes develop?
• Which are the best wines to pair with soft-shell crab?
• What was Barbara’s most memorable wine moment?
• When did Barbara realize she wanted to transition into a writing career?
• Why are book covers often like a political landmine?
• What are the key elements of a good cookbook cover?
• How did Barbara decide on the cover design for her book, Wine Time?
• What makes great food photography?
• How did the art of pickling surprise Barbara while researching Wine Time?
• Can you pair pickled foods with wine?

 

Key Takeaways

• Can you pair pickled foods with wine? As Barbara observed, contrary to popular belief, these vinegarized foods don’t always wreak havoc on wine. Riesling actually works very well with its own natural acidity, as do other acidic wines like Sauvignon Blanc and Gruner Veltliner.
• Which wines pair best with soft-shell crab? Barbara would go with a chilled pinot grigio, or if she’s feeling extravagant, a white burgundy, which is an opulent French chardonnay.
• What goes into great food photography, whether it’s in a magazine or cookbook? Barbara says there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. You need to have a good food stylist and a good prop stylist. Most of us don’t realize that there are people who get paid to shop for the right linen, the right glass, the right cup, and it’s very subtle, but you look at it, you go, wow, that photograph is so good. It’s because this team is thinking about it. And that’s the magic of food photography.

 

Start The Conversation: Click Below to Share These Wine Tips

 

About Barbara Scott-Goodman

Barbara Scott-Goodman is an author, art director, and designer of cookbooks for many publishers. Her most recent book is Wine Time ((Chronicle Books, 2021). Other books include Cake (Penguin Press, 2018), a collaboration with writer and illustrator Maira Kalman, Delicious Dessert Cocktails (Bluestreak Books, 2018), Brooklyn Bar Bites (Rizzoli, 2016), Happy Hour at Home (Running Press, 2013), and Wine Bites (Chronicle Books, 2011).

Her work has been featured in publications in print and online, including Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Publishers Weekly, Food52, and Sweet Paul. Her books always emphasize the importance of warm and intimate gatherings and eating, drinking, and living well in this era of non-ostentatious, casual entertaining.

 

Resources

• Connect with Barbara Scott-Goodman
  • Barbara Scott-Goodman’s Website | BarbaraScottGoodman.net
  • Barbara Scott-Goodman’s Books
    • Wine Time: 70+ Recipes for Simple Bites That Pair Perfectly with Wine
    • Wine Bites: Simple Morsels That Pair Perfectly with Wine
• Diary of a Book Launch: An Insider Peek from Idea to Publication
• Wine Witch on Fire Free Companion Guide for Book Clubs
• My Books:
  • Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce,Defamation, and Drinking Too Much
  • Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines
  • Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass
• Unreserved Wine Talk | Episode 31: Pairing Wine & Charcuterie with Jennifer McLagan
• My new class The 5 Wine & Food Pairing Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Dinner And How To Fix Them Forever

 

Tag Me on Social

Tag me on social media if you enjoyed the episode:

• @nataliemaclean and @natdecants on Facebook
• @nataliemaclean on Twitter
• @nataliemacleanwine on Instagram
• @nataliemaclean on LinkedIn
• Email Me at [email protected]

 

Thirsty for more?

• Sign up for my free online wine video class where I’ll walk you through The 5 Wine & Food Pairing Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Dinner (and how to fix them forever!)
• You’ll find my books here, including Unquenchable: A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines and Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.
• The new audio edition of Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass is now available on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com and other country-specific Amazon sites; iTunes.ca, iTunes.com and other country-specific iTunes sites; Audible.ca and Audible.com.

 

Transcript

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:00:00) – I think pickles are such a great accent to a charcuterie plate.

Natalie MacLean (00:00:04) – Doesn’t it wreak havoc on wine? It’s vinegar ized.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:00:07) – It doesn’t. Riesling actually works very well with it, right?

Natalie MacLean (00:00:12) – Lots of acidity.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:00:13) – Yeah, all the acidity. I mean, I think if you looked at what goes well with very acidic food, you would find there are some really good wines that will stand up to it.

Natalie MacLean (00:00:25) – I would think Sauvignon blanc too, because it’s got that green herbal and then the acid as well. That makes sense.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:00:30) – Don’t be afraid to try it.

Natalie MacLean (00:00:39) – Do you have a thirst to learn about wine? Do you love stories about wonderfully obsessive people, hauntingly beautiful places, and amusingly awkward social situations? Well, that’s the blend here on the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast. I’m your host, Natalie MacLean, and each week I share with you unfiltered conversations with celebrities in the wine world, as well as confessions from my own tipsy journey as I write my third book on this subject. I’m so glad you’re here.

Natalie MacLean (00:01:14) – Now pass me that bottle, please, and let’s get started. Welcome to episode 283. Can you pair wine with pickled foods? Or will their vinegar ized flavors ruin the wine? Which wines pair best with soft shell crab? And what goes into great food photography, whether it’s in a magazine or cookbook? In today’s episode, you’ll hear the stories and tips that answer those questions in our chat with Barbara Scott Goodman, author of Wine Bites Simple Morsels That Pair Perfectly with Wine. Those of you in my Wine Smart course, a full bodied framework to taste, pair and buy wine like a pro will be familiar with many of these challenging pairings that we discussed today. Three of you are going to win a copy of Barbara’s beautifully illustrated book with recipes. All you have to do is email me at Natalie at Natalie MacLean dot com, and let me know that you’d like to win a copy. I’ll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. So let’s announce some recent winners of the book giveaways. The winner of The Social Herbivore, a plant based food and wine matching book by Priya Rao and Jennifer Houser, is Karen Mitchell from Fort Francis, Ontario.

Natalie MacLean (00:02:33) – Hey, the winner of the wine, Faults and Flaws book by Keith Granger is Melanie Estelle from New Hampshire. Ooh, and a copy of Vintage Crime. A History of Wine Fraud is going to Lucia Capri in Van Anda, British Columbia. So if you haven’t won a book yet, now’s your chance. Keep listening, as my goal is to offer lots more books and other prizes with every episode. I’ll announce more winners next week. If you want to win, just email me at Natalie at Natalie MacLean. Com. Now, speaking of books, have you read wine which on fire, rising from the ashes of divorce, defamation and drinking too much? If yes, well then, have you bought a copy for a friend or family member? Please do that if you’d like to support this podcast that I do for you on a volunteer basis to ensure it continues. You can order it for yourself or someone else from any online book retailer now, no matter where you live, it usually arrives in a day or two.

Natalie MacLean (00:03:40) – And of course, the e-book is instant. It’s a fast, fun read and every little bit helps spread the message in this book of hope, justice, and resilience. You can send a copy directly to a friend or family member via an online retailer, and make their day when a gift arrives in the mail instead of another bill. I’ll put a link in the show notes to all retailers worldwide at Natalie MacLean dot com. Slash 283. If you’ve read the book or are reading it, I’d love to hear from you at Natalie at Natalie MacLean dot com. Okay, on with the show. Barbara Scott Goodman is a cookbook author, food writer, and content creator, and an art director and designer of cookbooks, lifestyle books, food publications, videos, and websites. Two of her many books have a strong wine pairing element to them, including the book I just mentioned, Wine Time, as well as Wine bites simple morsels that pair perfectly with wine. Her books have been featured in Bon Appetit, Saveur, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and numerous other publications.

Natalie MacLean (00:04:52) – She joins us now from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Welcome, Barbara. It’s so great to have you with us.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:04:57) – Hi. Thanks for having me.

Natalie MacLean (00:04:59) – All right, so before we dive into your career, tell us about your earliest, most vivid memory of either cooking or baking.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:05:07) – I would guess it would be very early. I started cooking a lot when I was freelancing because I had the time, and I would also spend summers at the beach in Long Island in Montauk, New York. And I really enjoyed cooking there because, I mean, I love cooking seafood and I love summer food. And I really got into creating recipes. I was just kind of passionate about cooking for seasons, seasonal cooking, and I really enjoyed the summer. And I thought of, you know, I lived in a town where you could get fresh fish and lobster and clams and everything, and I started experimenting a lot because why not, you know? So that was kind of what I was doing. And at the same time I was designing books.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:06:03) – I came to cookbooks as a designer. So I knew about publishing and I knew about creating cookbooks. And I realized that if I wanted to actually ever produce my own cookbook, I would have to write down all my recipes.

Natalie MacLean (00:06:19) – Yes. Did you have a favorite one from the seafood category?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:06:24) – Yeah, I, I have a very favorite recipe and it’s softshell crabs. And, you know, it’s a very short season. And when they’re around I cook them a lot. I also did a lot of lobster dishes and a lot of fresh seafood, fish filets.

Natalie MacLean (00:06:40) – And and is there a secret ingredient that makes those soft crabs so good?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:06:44) – Yes. It’s a secret. No. Yeah. It really need to soak the crabs in buttermilk and buttermilk in an egg and give them a good soak for about an hour. And it breaks down this shell a little bit. And also the flour and the cornmeal adhere to it better. And they’re really good. They cook very fast.

Natalie MacLean (00:07:06) – And what wine would you pair with those.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:07:08) – Oh I would go with a nice white. I would go with a nice chilled Pinot Grigio. Or if I were feeling extravagant, a white Burgundy which I love, or Chardonnay or something. Yeah.

Natalie MacLean (00:07:21) – Oh, terrific.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:07:22) – Yeah. So those are kind of my favorite types of recipes.

Natalie MacLean (00:07:26) – Awesome. And so do you lean more toward cooking than baking? Because I’ve heard it described as you have to have two different personalities to be like. They even talk about being a bit obsessive when it comes to baking. Do you lean one way or the other?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:07:38) – That’s interesting. Yeah, I’m more of a cook than a baker, although I did do a cake book a couple of years ago, and I did it with the illustrator, Myra Kalman, and it was just 16 recipes of cakes. And my baking chops got a lot better, but I had an outside baker test all the recipes because I don’t feel totally confident about baking, and some people do. Some people are very, very good at it and aren’t intimidated.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:08:10) – And the thing about baking, you have to follow the rules. There’s not a lot of improvisation, and I think some people have a more innate feel for it than cooks do. I wouldn’t say ones, you know, one, I would call them two different ways of thinking about food.

Natalie MacLean (00:08:31) – Yeah, I remember I tried to bake a cake once and mistook baking powder for baking soda. Or maybe it was the other way around. And that was kind of my first and last cake. And then I started buying cakes.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:08:43) – Yeah. Oh, there’s always room for disaster.

Natalie MacLean (00:08:46) – Yeah. It thinks can go really wrong. Did you ever have a baking disaster?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:08:50) – Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I did that baking soda instead of baking powder. And it really makes a difference. You have to pay attention. You can’t put it on the stove and walk away like you can with soup. Or, you know, you have to really be minding the store. And some people are really, really good at that.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:09:08) – And I would say it doesn’t come to me naturally. So I admire bakers and pastry chefs, and I just kind of, wow.

Natalie MacLean (00:09:18) – It’s a precise art.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:09:19) – Yes. Yeah, it’s a precise art.

Natalie MacLean (00:09:22) – So do you have a most memorable wine moment?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:09:25) – It was quite a few years ago. We were traveling with in Italy with our kids, and they were young. And, you know, traveling with kids is a challenge. And we were in Venice and we were just tired. We had been to museums. We were just didn’t know where to eat or what to do. And we ended up going into a little funny little restaurant, which was run by women. And they brought out the most extraordinary plate of linguine and clam sauce. And one of my daughters started to speak to them in Italian because she was taken in school and we were royalty then, and they brought this most wonderful, I think it was suave. It was something.

Natalie MacLean (00:10:12) – A zesty white.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:10:13) – Yeah, with a ingredient, clam sauce.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:10:16) – I mean, like, I think this is the best glass of wine I’ve ever had. That.

Natalie MacLean (00:10:21) – Oh, that sounds right out of a book from MFK Fisher. It’s like it was the situation, the emotions.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:10:27) – It was a situation. And I still remember it very clearly. And it was really the most delicious linguine and clam sauce ever.

Natalie MacLean (00:10:35) – That’s fabulous.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:10:36) – Yeah. And the wine was great.

Natalie MacLean (00:10:37) – Too, I’ll bet. Oh, what a great pairing too. So when was the moment you realized you wanted to be a writer? Now I know you came into it as a designer, but what about the writing aspect? When did you know you wanted to do that?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:10:50) – Well, I wanted to do my own book, and I knew that to do my own book, I’d have to do all the parts, because I also had a very clear idea of how I wanted my book to look. So I think it was from being around a lot of other food writers and cooks and book producers. I learned a lot from other people.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:11:15) – Not. It was really my book education, and I thought, I think I could do this, and I think it was from working on so many other people’s books that I sort of absorbed what they were doing, and I wanted my cookbooks to be very clear. I thought that, you know, sometimes cookbooks were they kind of went off what the end product was supposed to be. And there were a lot of books that I said, I don’t understand how we’re going to get there in the instructions. And I wanted it to be like, when somebody asks you for directions and you give them clues, you give them clues, you go, you know, the gas station is going to be on the left, and then you’ll know that you’re in the right place. And I always like those kinds of books and wanted to emulate that where I don’t know if this is making sense, but I wanted a cookbook that would be a guide. And I think one of the best writers at the time was Julia Child.

Natalie MacLean (00:12:13) – Right. And she didn’t even have photos.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:12:15) – She didn’t have photos and you would read the recipes. To this day, you go, oh yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. And there there are some cookbooks. I’m going to go out on a limb and say chef cookbooks, but they assume that you know how to do all of this. You know how to do everything that you know what every step is going to be. And I prefer to write as a guide. It’s sort of like, I’ll show you how to do this. And I kind of think about if the reader is going to ask questions. That’s why the baking book was very hard to do, because I was like, this doesn’t come to me so easily. So I try to be a good guide.

Natalie MacLean (00:12:58) – Oh, that’s excellent. And we’ll dive deeper into what makes a good cookbook in a minute. But is there anything that stands out for you as kind of the worst moment of your career so far for writing or design? And we’ll end with a happy story, but is there anything that comes to mind?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:13:14) – You know, I’ve been lucky that I’ve most always worked with really good people and had put good teams together and worked for publishers who have a good team.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:13:26) – It’s not always the case and I would say more getting into. Art direction in the way a book should look. You can clash with a lot of people who have very different ideas of the way things should look. And I did a book. It was a cookbook. It wasn’t a wine book. And somebody redesigned the cover without showing me, and I didn’t know about it until it was printed. And it’s just.

Natalie MacLean (00:13:57) – It’s one of those things you’d rather forget, I’m sure.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:14:00) – Yeah. And that happens. That happens. It’s just people difference of opinion.

Natalie MacLean (00:14:05) – And where everybody thinks they’re the expert, even if they don’t have training. Writing can be like that too. It’s like, okay, everybody thinks they’re an editor.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:14:13) – Yeah. And there’s also well, with I mean, we could get into book covers, but covers are always a political landmine.

Natalie MacLean (00:14:24) – A good way to put it. But tell me why you think they’re a political lamb. Is it just because everybody has strong different opinions?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:14:30) – Yes, yes.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:14:31) – And you can think that you know what a good book cover is and you’ll get a million different ideas about what a good book cover is, and you’ll get the marketing people and the sales people involved who don’t really, a lot of times have the same taste as you have. But they do know, and this is like a friend of mine once said, a book cover is like a fire hydrant. Everybody has to leave their mark, and that’s diplomatic. And you know, when you go to a bookstore and see a table full of cookbooks, I can tell, I could tell, oh, marketing decided this.

Natalie MacLean (00:15:13) – Really? What gives you that hint? What’s a marketing cover?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:15:17) – It’s trying to please everyone.

Natalie MacLean (00:15:19) – It’s like it’s a mash up.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:15:21) – It’s a mash up. Yeah, exactly.

Natalie MacLean (00:15:23) – With not one message. Yeah. Okay. And what do you think makes a good cookbook cover?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:15:29) – It doesn’t always have to be a photograph. It doesn’t always have to be an illustration. It can be totally type.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:15:36) – I just think it’s needs to grab your attention in some way. Like it could be some wacky color combination, or it can be one stunning image. I’m thinking of a lot of bread books now. I’ve seen some really beautiful bread covers, you know, because it’s so photogenic. And then if I see a book, you know, like a lot of diet books and a lot of books that are trying to be everything to everyone, you can suss that out pretty much, I think. Yeah.

Natalie MacLean (00:16:09) – And now for your book, Wine Time. And we’ll put a copy of the book, the cover in the show notes for those who are listening to this, but tell us why you decided to describe that cover design and why you went with it.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:16:22) – Well, it’s actually a follow up book to a book I did a couple of years before called Wide Bites, and all of these were published by Chronicle Books and Chronicles, based out of San Francisco. They’ve done some really wonderful books, and they’re pretty design driven, and that’s why I have liked working with them a lot.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:16:43) – And the first book, Wine Bites, which I think I told you, I am not sure if that book is still in print.

Natalie MacLean (00:16:49) – So it’s still on Amazon, so we’ll link to it.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:16:52) – Okay, good. The book did really well. It was just kind of a big surprise to me and to chronicle it. And I don’t know, it just kind of it was at a time, I think, where people were getting away from doing big dinner parties and doing more complicated cooking. It was more geared to people entertaining much more casually, and having people over for wine and making snacks. You know, it’s very snacky and app stuff, and it’s also for people who don’t want to be in the kitchen all night making a dinner party. Yeah. So I think the time was good. And a lot of wineries have bought that book and they sell it in wineries. But the food part of it was very important because it was accessible food things. You can make a lot of pantry items. There are sections on cheese boards and charcuterie plates and all of that.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:17:51) – So you could have a party and not cook.

Natalie MacLean (00:17:54) – Sounds ideal to me.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:17:56) – Yeah, it’s a lot of people love that and there’s nothing wrong with it at all. So that book did really well. And then they wanted to follow up. So we did this follow up. And it’s kind of a continuation of Wine Bites. It’s actually even a little more snacky. There’s really easy things like, you know, roasted chickpeas and feta cheese spread. But all are very good with wine. So that’s how the book came about. And the cover, we had a lot to choose from. We had a lot of dishes to choose from, but. I really liked the bruschetta. You know, toast where.

Natalie MacLean (00:18:36) – You can hold it up if you have it. Yeah, because we have the video version of this as well. Yes.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:18:41) – Backwards. No, that’s the right way. Yeah.

Natalie MacLean (00:18:44) – There you go.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:18:44) – You know, this is what you want to have with a glass of wine. Is it a toast with prosciutto or smoked salmon or something really easy to put together but really, really delicious.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:18:56) – So that was the one. And it was also the colors and the whole look were kind of really appealing. There were other things, you know, food’s tricky to shoot. I mean, there’s a lot of things that don’t look that good.

Natalie MacLean (00:19:11) – Like, yeah, well, I’ve heard stories too, about people using hairspray to make, I don’t know, something shiny or I don’t know what. Do those things actually happen?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:19:19) – I don’t do that. But there are people who do that. I think they do that a lot more in advertising, where time is of the essence. I know ice cream is a nightmare to shoot. I’m sure.

Natalie MacLean (00:19:33) – Under those hot lights.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:19:35) – There are some oysters. We shot oysters in a restaurant. I’m sorry it wasn’t in this book. It was in the Brooklyn Bar Bites book. And it was murder because the ice was melting so fast. You know, they didn’t want the oysters to go bad, but I wouldn’t.

Natalie MacLean (00:19:50) – Well, I was going to say those oysters must have been lethal by the time you were.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:19:53) – I wouldn’t have eaten one.

Natalie MacLean (00:19:56) – But they look good. That’s. They look.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:19:58) – Great. Yeah. And a lot of times a food stylist will, you know, spray water just to make something look fresher and cleaner and better under the lights. So, yeah, but I do know about things that stylists do to sort of ramp up the look.

Natalie MacLean (00:20:15) – So what else do they do? I’m just curious what other techniques are there?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:20:19) – I think they used to use mashed potatoes to make it look like ice cream. Okay, but once someone told me that, I looked at every picture of ice cream and said, oh, I think that’s mashed potatoes.

Natalie MacLean (00:20:31) – So then you saw it everywhere. Yeah, yeah, I saw.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:20:33) – It very differently.

Natalie MacLean (00:20:35) – What do you think makes food photography great as opposed to, I don’t know, stagey or preening or whatever that, you know, overdone.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:20:44) – Food photography is it goes through all kinds of looks and it depends on what you prefer, really. The art director of the publisher, whoever, what kind of look they want.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:20:56) – I like food to look pretty natural and to look at it go, wow, that looks really good. And that looks like I could make that. So fairly natural, is what I would say. I’m always going for some people like a much more stylized sort of formal look, and that’s fine. You know, for some dishes. The thing about food shots, you know, people always say, no, oh, can’t you just shoot that on your phone? And in.

Natalie MacLean (00:21:26) – The world of Instagram.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:21:28) – In the world of Instagram, I say not really. There’s a lot behind the scenes. You need to have a good food stylist, a good prop stylist, and that sort of goes unmentioned because those people are professional and they know how food should look when it’s photographed. They know how it’s going to look through the camera. And that’s a big difference, is what it’s going to look like in real life. You shoot it for it. It’s like, you know, modeling. It’s like people know how things are going to look on.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:22:04) – I’m going to date myself here and say on film, but I say there’s a big difference. Prop styling is people don’t realize, but there are people who get paid to shop and go and find just the right linen, the right glass, the right cup. And it’s very subtle, but you look at it, you go, wow, that photograph is so good. And it’s because this team is thinking about it. And that’s kind of the magic of food photography.

Natalie MacLean (00:22:34) – Absolutely. So while you were researching or writing the book Wine Time, was there anything you discovered that was surprising or, I don’t know, an interesting tidbit that you remember or want to share?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:22:48) – I did a whole section on pickling because people love pickles, and it turned out that you can pickle a lot of things, like I did pickled fennel in pickled green beans and onions and pickled cocktail onions.

Natalie MacLean (00:23:04) – Is that different from brining? I’m not a cook, by the way, so. Okay. No, it’s.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:23:08) – Kind of the same.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:23:09) – It’s actually called quick pickling and it’s just a mixture of vinegar and sugar and water. But you could do it with anything. Cauliflower, peppers. That’s just really fun to do in the summer. It’s just, you know, go to the farmer’s market and get all these things. And you know, I think pickles are such a great accent to a charcuterie plate and also. I live in Brooklyn and there are a lot of bars and they just have pickled stuff at the bars and it’s kind of delicious.

Natalie MacLean (00:23:38) – It is. But doesn’t it wreak havoc on wine? I’m making an assumption here without testing, but it’s vinegar ized.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:23:45) – It doesn’t actually.

Natalie MacLean (00:23:47) – Are. Why is that?

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:23:48) – Riesling actually works very well with it, right?

Natalie MacLean (00:23:52) – Lots of acidity.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:23:53) – Yeah, all the acidity. I mean, I think if you looked at what goes well with very acidic food, you would find there are some really good wines that will stand up to it.

Natalie MacLean (00:24:04) – I would think Sauvignon blanc too, because it’s got that green herbal and then the acid as well.

Natalie MacLean (00:24:09) – But yeah, okay, that makes sense.

Barbara Scott-Goodman (00:24:11) – It’s just like, don’t be afraid to try it.

Natalie MacLean (00:24:15) – Absolutely. It’s the experimenting that’s so fun and that’s what you got to do for many books. Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed our chat with Barbara. Here are my takeaways. Number one, can you pair pickled foods with wine? As Barbara observed, contrary to popular belief, these vinegar foods don’t always wreak havoc on wine. Riesling actually works very well with its own natural acidity, as do other acidic wines like Sauvignon blanc and Gruner Veltliner. Number two. Which wines pair best with soft shell crab? Berber would go with a chilled Pinot Grigio, or if she’s feeling extra, extra, she would pour herself a glass of white Burgundy, which is an opulent French chardonnay. And number three, what goes into great food photography, whether it’s in a magazine or a cookbook? Barbara says there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. You need to have a great food stylist and prop stylist, and most of us don’t realize that there are people who get paid to shop for just the right linen, the right glass, the right cup.

Natalie MacLean (00:25:27) – It’s very subtle, but when you look at it, you go, wow, that photograph is so good. It’s so composed. The lighting’s just right. That’s because there is a team thinking about every aspect. And that, my friends, is the magic of food photography. In the show notes. You’ll find a full transcript of my conversation with Barbara. Links to her website and books, the video versions of these conversations on Facebook and YouTube live, and where you can order my book online now, no matter where you live. You’ll also find a link to take my free online food and wine pairing class, called the five Wine and Food Pairing Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Dinner and How to Fix Them Forever at Natalie MacLean. Com forward slash class. That’s all in the show notes at Natalie MacLean. Com forward slash 203. Email me if you have a SIP tip question, or would like to win one of three copies of Barbara’s gorgeous book on food and wine pairing with recipes. Or if you’ve read my book or are in the process of reading it at Natalie at Natalie MacLean dot com.

Natalie MacLean (00:26:31) – If you missed episode 31, go back and take a listen. I chat about pairing wine and charcuterie with author Jennifer McLagan. I’ll share a short clip with you now to whet your appetite.

Jennifer McLagan (00:26:43) – I always said with a fat book, if you eat fat, you stay thin because fat. And it’s true. You know, people always said to me, they said, well, you know, how come you don’t weigh, you know, £500? I said, because eight fat, I don’t eat a lot of sugar, I don’t eat a lot of snack food. And fat is very satisfying. And the other important thing about that to remember is that’s where the flavor is. A lot of flavors are only carried through fat. You can’t get the flavor out of a lot of food without fat. And that’s why if you eat fat free food, it’s really not satisfying at all. And you eat twice as much, right?

Natalie MacLean (00:27:17) – Sounds like the alcohol in wine. It’s the carrier of flavor. Exactly. People try to make alcoholic wines and it’s like, oh.

Jennifer McLagan (00:27:25) – Well, exactly. There is no. And you know, it’s not that thing. I mean, you don’t probably want a super high alcoholic wine, but alcohol, fat, they carry the flavor. They add to the whole deliciousness of the product.

Natalie MacLean (00:27:41) – You won’t want to miss next week when we continue our chat with Barbara. If you liked this episode or learned even one thing from it, please email or tell a friend about the podcast this week, especially someone you know who’d be interested in learning more about food and wine pairing, including those tips on brine foods and shellfish. It’s easy to find my podcast. Just tell them to search for Natalie MacLean wine on their favorite podcast app, or they can listen to the show on my website. Thank you for taking the time to join me here. I hope something great is in your glass this week. Perhaps a luxurious white Burgundy with a little soft shell crab? You don’t want to miss one juicy episode of this podcast, especially the secret full bodied bonus episodes that I don’t announce on social media.

Natalie MacLean (00:28:37) – So subscribe for free now at Natalie MacLean. Com forward slash subscribe. Meet me here next week. Cheers.

 

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