Executive Chef ~ Steve Stawinski
Ponte Family Estate Winery
35053 Rancho California Road
Temecula, CA 92591
(951) 694-8855
E-mail: sstawinski@pontewinery.com
Web site: www.pontewinery.com

What does wine country cuisine mean to me? It brings up thoughts of everything that is right in the world of food and wine, and all the fusions in between. It means seasonal freshness, new ideas and cutting edge trends, as well as and old favorites all prepared and presented with rustic style. It can be anything from meatloaf to confit. It involves the pairing of that perfect wine with each dish, dictated by each individual palate. Wine country cuisine is not stuffy or snobby, yet is presented with a simple elegance, which I think has earned it it’s own regional category in the same way as Cajun or Southwestern cuisine has.

To me wine country cuisine is not limited to wine country. It is not an issue of geography. It can be created in Napa / Sonoma, here in Temecula, or in a metropolis as big and as far away as New York. Actually, I believe it would almost be more appreciated in a place that is not “wine country”, because of the fact that in a bustling place such as New York City restaurant patrons are bombarded with so many combinations of foods and flavors that they are not familiar with, that the true underlying flavor of the ingredients are lost. To be brought back down to Earth in a sense by letting the integrity of the ingredients speak for themselves is a great way to experience fresh food, as well as to learn about ingredients that are new to you.

Obviously wine country cuisine is not just about the food. It has just as much to do with wine. After all, without wine there would be no wine country cuisine. So I believe that as a winery Chef I am obligated to first create my menus and purchase my ingredients while always being aware of the connection to wine, and second, to try to create flavors in my dishes that will bring out the best qualities in a wine. As proud as I am of my culinary creations, I know, that as I wine drinker, when I am having a meal I always take notice of how the wine tastes before I’ve tasted the dish, and how the flavor of the wine is affected after I’ve tasted to dish. Achieving this goal may sometimes mean I must change a recipe, but it’s a small price to pay to be able to enhance the wine experience.

Are all Chefs wine country Chefs? Probably not. Was I always a wine country Chef? At heart I think I was, even before I knew it. My background certainly doesn’t suggest it. The bulk of my experience before coming to Temecula was hotel food and beverage. While it gave me great experience and taught me so much of the business aspect of running a kitchen, the food preparation was monotonous; lots of chicken with cream sauce. I had the freedom to experiment and create dishes with new ingredients, but the market I was in was very meat and potatoes. People were not so willing to try new things. It just wasn’t the place for the style of cuisine I wanted to create. Now that I am a winery Chef in Temecula I have the opportunity to explore different horizons in the food world, whether it be recipes, or presentations, or the ability to purchase fresh ingredients directly from produce farms or cheese dairies. There is also the opportunity, being a part of wine country, to work with neighboring Chefs, sharing ideas or combining efforts for charity.

So in the end I guess my philosophy of wine country cuisine would be the interaction of fresh ingredients prepared with simple elegance and presented in a fashion as acceptable in a casual bistro as it would be in a white tablecloth dining room, paired to enhance a given wine.