A Vintnerview with Michelle Gueydan

Michelle Gueydan left New Orleans after high school for college in New York. After college she worked for then gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner and then a job as a private event manager eased her into the wine world. She returned to New Orleans where she is in an integral member in three wine related businesses. At Swirl, she is a "wino" helping customers choose a wine to take home. As the principal in VinoSolutions she outsources sommelier expertise to restaurants and home collectors to organize and build their wine holdings. Recently, Gueydan partnered with Brian Dias to start NOLAWineSpeak, a wine education company. Twentyish questions on the clock....

I was in college in upstate New York. Had done most my partying in high school so when I got to college found partying sort of boring and focused more on studying. Close to college was the Finger Lakes region which makes a lot of wines, so one day I just volunteered to help pull leaves at a vineyard. It was there I first learned wine could be art and not just pink stuff that got you drunk.

I had been working for a few years as the event planner for a guy who owned a real estate asset management company. My boss also did a lot of philanthropic work with Quincy Jones so we were always planning dinners of some sort. Or we were flying to a dinner and talking about wine while reading food and wine magazines. So originally pairing was something of a foray into an unknown world, but I still knew very little about wine. After a series of events on the Mediterranean, I hadn't slept in a week. I was sitting on a yacht and the steward came over and asked if I'd like a glass of wine. I said sure, whatever you have. She brought a white wine that was so perfumey and unctuous that I asked what is this. She said Chardonnay and I didn't believe her. From then on, wine became a side passion and then an obsession.

Well, that bottle of Meursault on the yacht. But I don't remember the producer or vintage or anything like that. The other bottle I chase and will never catch again was a 1905 Chateau La Tour. I was in Colorado helping my boss organize his cellar before leaving to start a job in a tasting room in Alexe Corton when I got a call that the French government would not allow an American girl such a prestigious job. So I was pretty despondent and my boss cheered me up by asking, "What should we open?" I told him the 1905 La Tour was leaking a bit. So he pulled down that bottle, a 1929 Mouton, a 1950 Haut Brion, and a 1961 Petrus. Of all those bottles, the 1905 was far and away the best with the fruit still prominent after over 100 years.

I never thought I wanted to come back to New Orleans. All of my family here has died, so there was nothing to come back to, until Katrina. And then I felt a really strong urge to come home. At the time, I was the sommelier at the Inn at Little Washington. Came down here and got a job with John Besh as sommelier at August. In general the position of sommelier in New Orleans is not as supported as a free standing position in a restaurant as in other cities. In other cities, if you are the sommelier on the floor, it is your job to help guests select wine and manage the wine list of the restaurant. As a sommelier in New Orleans you are expected to be a manager as well. So I've had this idea of a sommelier education program to make more sommeliers truly sommeliers in New Orleans. But it was just an idea until I met Brian. The goal is to see be progressing with our wine thought in New Orleans. And that is what we want to do with NOLAWineSpeak.

I can't stand formulated wine descriptions. The one I hate the most is gooseberry. I didn't have the slightest clue what a gooseberry tasted like when I started learning about Sauvignon Blanc as tasting of gooseberry. I still dont know what a gooseberry tastes like. But people use that term as if everyone is eating gooseberries all the time. Other thing I hate is wine descriptors that are awful images but used in a positive context like "wet dog" or "barnyard". Who wants to drink a wet dog?

Best way to ease the tension with customers who are apprehensive about wine is just to start a conversation with the guest. Find out what they are interested in, what they are in the mood for, what do they normally prefer to drink. Sometimes people ask me what I like to drink and I tell them it depends on the day.

Rose. Across the board there is no wine better suited for New Orleans cuisine. A dry rose, with good fruit, good weight, and good acidity is nearly perfect match for the spiciness of our food. Always enjoyed rose, but I really started liking them with food when I moved back to New Orleans.

I hate the single palate based point systems which dominate the wine world. There is value in ratings that are group efforts but just go to off a single palate? I don't like that. I went to Bourdeaux to barrel taste the '05s. We were tasting 200 wines a day and there were a lot of us. But every winery was waiting for the scores of Robert Parker before prices could be set. You could sense the stress in the room and in all of the producers while awaiting Parker's judgment.

If I made a wine, it would be an eclectic, off the beaten path varietal that would challenge me to make it into a single varietal bottling. Turning something that is usually just blended with other grapes into its own wine that is what I love and it would be a limited bottling all hand sold.

Windows on the World. Extremely Pale Rose. A great book for the intro level person is The Wine Bible. Karen MacNeil does a very good job of adding fun tidbits and making wine an interesting read. All that said, I prefer to read magazines and newsletters like Decanter and Food and Wine for wine info. Mostly because wine is always changing and books are sometimes outdated by the time the fifth chapter is written.

I like that people are more adventuresome with their palates. Nowadays, people are open to try other varieties other than Chardonnay and Cabernet. On a winemaking level the focus on sustainability and artisinal approaches are things I really like.

To enhance enjoyment at home, try new things but try them with food to make the daily task of having dinner a grander experience. Really try and think about how the flavor profiles of wine and food could work together.

Yes, but I have been pretty fortunate in that I've normally been offered a taste and not have to think, "Man, I wish I could drink that." But I found that while at August, visitors, New Yorkers specifically, thought their expertise outshined that of any local sommelier. So they would often not offer me a sip.

Vietnamese - Riesling. Tex-Mex- Tequila, my second favorite thing to drink. American Chinese - An Austrian Gruner Veltliner. Crawfish Boil - Rose.

I've pretty much drank through most of my collection I had built up. Former employer called and said he had been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to know what the most expensive bottles in his cellar were because he was going to drink them, chemo be damned. So I thought, why am I holding all these wines that one day I may never be able to drink? I had First Growth Bourdeaux and Italian wines that I drank. I still have some 1982 Margaux, Lafitte, Mouton, older Pahlmeyer. But what do I drink? My heart is in Burgundy, my pocketbook in Spain. I drink Tempranillo and Albarino. Also, drink a lot of boxed wine. James Moises is releasing a boxed Oregon Pinot (at right) that is pretty amazing in my book. Higher quality boxed wine with no chance of spoiling is on the rise.

Boucherie. Nathaniel (Zimet) and James (Denio) have managed to build a wine list that presents wines off the beaten path at an affordable price point that don't intimidate. And then of course, Commander Dan at Commander's Palace. From a revered wine list stand point, Commander's Palace best in town. From a consumer's point of view, Boucherie.

Boucherie, Cowbell, Herbsaint, and Coquette. Ohh and can I add Patois, I can't just pick four restaurants?

Hall and Oates - Chardonnay. Not because it is cheesy, but because it is a wine that was really popular back in the day. Mozart- German Gerwurtztriminer. Dr. Dre- Australian Shiraz.

Most memorable food and wine experience was at 2941 Restaurant in Virginia. The wine was a Madeira. The dish a soup sort of similar to our version of turtle soup but not quite the same. Madeira was new to me and the combination of it with the food created a third flavor, different than either the soup or the wine  which enhanced both the soup and the wine. Just a great pairing.

Desert Island wines? That is tough. 1905 Latour. 1990 E. Guigal La Landonne. Aged Vouvray-Huet would be first choice, but it doesn't matter. I just love aged Vouvray and we need more of it. Sake Daiginjo. Meursault, nothing specific because I like to many producers.

Beasts and Brass with a Shot of Fernet Branca

As this blog alluded to yesterday, Sunday's Beasts and Brass event is going to be a good time. But don't take our word for it. "It is going to be a good time," says Robert Peyton.

Here is the skinny. Starting Sunday at 5 is the Patron Party where for $85 (presale) or $100 (at door, you can enjoy music, food and drinks from over 30 New Orleans restaurants, live auctions, and those good times referenced above. Just look at the restaurants serving at the Patron Party:

Boucherie & The Cue Crawl, La Petite Grocery, Three Muses, Iris, Patois, Crescent Pie & Sausage Co., Martinique Bistro, Lilette, Dante's Kitchen, St. James Cheese Co., Satsuma, Le Foret, Cafe Rani, Brightsen's, Charlie's Seafood, Link Restaurant Group, Joel's Catering, Cure, Dante's Kitchen, The Green Goddess, Melissa's Fine Pastries, Zea, August, Luke, Domenica, Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, River Shack Tavern, Oak Crest Mansion, Kajun Kettle Foods, Tracey's, Pal's Lounge.

At 9 pm, the ticket price drops to $20, the bar turns to cash, and the party keeps going until til.  More information here. The Blackened Out Twins are going which means there is a 90% chance of someone getting deported. Also, if you want to volunteer, the organizers are looking for people to help out. If so, shoot an email to Justin Devillier whose email is his first name at la petite grocery.

To take you off into a meditative and charitable state, here is a cocktail recipe courtesy of James Denio of Boucherie.

Good Medicine

1.5 oz Frenet-Branca
1.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
1.5 oz Orange Pekoe Tea (iced) 
Dram of simple syrup ( barely a nip, just a hair) 
1 mint leaf

Served up in Collins glass. The drink is highly aromatic, and better served as a digestif rather then an aperitif because as it's name suggests, it does wonders on the belly after a good meal. Before-hand it can be a bit much on the palate, although personally I'd take it either way.

Instead of a cocktail glass which I believe is best used for drinks that employ citrus oils (from zesting) to create almost a tickling of the nose when you go in for that first sip, we're using a Collins, or tall water glass.  Here the aromatics can take over the olfactories well before the elixir hits the lips. The drink is equal parts all ingredients save the simple syrup (being just a pinch).  It's shaken and served up, taking just under half the glass's capacity, and leaving a good column for the aroma to travel.

Unlike other mixed drinks whose aggregate spirits the consumer may not enjoy on their own, yet blended create a flavor profile easily enjoyed, this drink may necessitate that the consumer likes Frenet-Branca to begin with, which is not to say the Frenet overpowers the cocktail, yet it is a uniquely potent element. The Cocchi vermouth adds a hint of chocolate, and the iced orange pekoe tea rounds out the otherwise heavily botanical ingredients. We spear a fresh mint leaf with a small cocktail straw and set it in the center of the cocktail, resting it upon the foam like a sail, it floats upon the head of the drink created by vigorous shaking before it's strained.

Both The Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, and Frenet-Branca are Italian spirits, and the drink was created to accompany what was to be our June menu of Italian influenced dishes put on hiatus due to Nathanial's attack on on the 22nd of May.  That menu is now taking shape here in July, with Nathanial coming in a few hours each day and changing the dishes one at a time rather then all at once as we've seen here at Boucherie in the past.  I'm excited to see what he pulls out of that brain of his.  It's good to have our boy back.

The Beast Speaks

For the last few years, Nathaniel Zimet has cooked great food out of both a big purple truck and now a quaint purple hued restaurant on Jeannette St. In May, Zimet was shot outside of his house and his recovery is still ongoing. This Sunday over 30 restaurants, some brass bands, and more will gather to raise money to help Zimet cover his medical bills at Beasts and Brass. Let's put 20ish questions on the clock and speak with the chef known as The Beast.

Professional cooking is not a family trait, necessarily, but I come from a family who can cook. I've worked in kitchens my whole life. I always wanted to own a restaurant so it seemed to me working in kitchens was the best way to get into owning a restaurant.

Dropped out of college to attend culinary school. Started at Le Cordon Bleu in London and finished up in Sydney. Moved back home to North Carolina and started cooking at probably what is the best restaurant there, the Fearrington House. Everyone in that kitchen was British and it was a tightly run brigade. Then went to work with Shane Ingram of Four Square restaurant. Shane is my mentor. It was there that I developed my palate. Then I came to New Orleans, following a girl. 

Last restaurant I worked at before the purple truck, was Iris which I helped open. The most challenging aspect of going into the truck, wasn't so much having to do everything by myself, but the rogue nature of it. For instance to wash dishes, I originally had to rent an RV spot. Then it was a friend's driveway. Eventually, I wound up with a place in Gentilly where I turned a greenhouse into a dish pit. I installed a plastic pot sink, ran hot and cold water hoses...It was all pretty rogue, but the level of cooking always stayed the same.

I think about dishes a lot as I recover. We change the menu every month at Boucherie. Obviously since I was shot at the end of May, the May menu ran through June. We are currently switching out the menu. When I create, I am such a think about it, do it person  Right now my strength isn't 100%, which makes it tough to create. I'll go into the restaurant, but only be able to work for a few hours and then go home exhausted. Not being able to execute my ideas halts that process.

The July menu at Boucherie is going to have Summer Italian theme. One dish is going to be a warm polenta terrine where the polenta is surrounded by housemade Italian sausage, peppers, onions, and mozzarella pulled in house. This will be served with a salad of Creole tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto. I am always trying to force a technique on my cooks in order to teach the technique to them. So with this menu, they are learning about making sausages, pulling mozzarella. 

James (Denio) has an interesting persepctive through all of this because I am so stuck in my own world. When I am able to eliminate the pain, I'm still very much stuck. It makes it very difficult for me to comprehend anything beyond me, right now. James has to work so much harder at Boucherie plus coordinate all these benefits and on top of all of that deal with the fact that his best friend got fucking shot. In a lot of ways, things are a lot easier on me than James. But he and the whole staff have excelled throughout this ordeal.

I couldn't be more proud of my kitchen staff. I've had many people call me and say, "I went to Boucherie tonight and it was awesome." This isn't an ego thing, but practically every chef in the city has called and offered to come in and work. And we've been able to tell them "Thanks, but we got it." I am just so proud of the way they have rallied around and come together to execute.

There is an impressive clique of us young chefs. This new crew, we all came up around the same time and pretty much all worked in at least one kitchen together. And now we all have our own restaurants and they are great. Chefs like Aaron Burgau, Justin Devillier, Dan Esses, we are all doing our own thing. Dan likes to tease me and say he taught me everything I know because I worked for him at the Bank Cafe.

I miss work a lot. Coming in here and only being able to work for a couple hours a day just isn't my style. Put it this way, if a stagiaire came in and worked like I am, I'd send his ass home. That is a very tough thing to deal with because cooking is the only thing I know how to do. I can't handle not doing it. My hands have been idle for what feels like forever. Also, I think one reason I was able to survive the shooting and go through this recovery is because I had begun doing Cross-Fit about five and a half months ago. I was in shape, losing weight, and really enjoying exercising. So I am looking forward to exercising again.

Knife. I have many, many knives. 3 weeks ago I got my new knives in. These are the first knives, I have ever had made especially for me. Guy named Alex Blue out of Seattle made them for me. They are true Damascus steel and have 412 layers of steel in each knife. Other knives, I use a lot, are made by Murray Carter in Oregon. Those are the thinnest, badest knives. I'm still getting used to the new ones though. I got my first knife at age 8. I became a chef in order to play with knives legitimately (laughs).

I did a soup once, more like a broth. The broth was kind of like pho, but not pho. I think on the menu I called it a kaffir lime fumet. I served it with a pork jowl dumpling. It was awesome but I couldn't sell it to save my life. Eventually ended up adding coconut milk and renaming it and then it sold. Fume just proved to hard to sell.

Picking a few cookbooks is tough because we change the menu a lot so I end up buying a lot of cookbooks. But two I really love are the Morimoto cookbook and Charcuterie. The Morimoto one, people say, "Ohh he is an Iron Chef, that is cool." But no, you read this guy's techniques and are in shock. It forever surprises me and impresses me. Charcuterie is a great book, very entry level, but an amazing resource for my cooks and I. 

Cooks going for the "Wow" factor. Strangely enough, because I'm so into it, cooks doing whole hog or nose to tail are some of the worst offenders. Sometimes people do whole hog or molecular stuff just to be extreme. When cooks do something hoping you say "Wow, look at that" instead of "Wow this tastes great" they are really forgetting about the act of eating. 

Most memorable meal was at Arzak in San Sebastien. That was the most badass meal ever because it was molecular gastronomy with bones. Things were fabulous but everything tasted fabulous also. I just love the way the Basque people rever their geography. At Mugaritz, I had a composed salad of 57 vegetables, 50 of which had been plucked off the mountain. They just care and are so proud about their land.

Dirtiness. Sloppy cooks, sloppy cuts, I don't deal with. When a stagiare comes in, I'll ask them to cut me some mirepoix. If not perfect, I tell them that I don't think we will match up well. Meticulous knife work is absolutely critical. Sloppy cooks make sloppy dishes.

Besides an alarm clock (laughs). My drive, I am always pumped and have a lot of energy. My mom had a friend who used to come stay with us over the summer. And she would always leave him lists of things to do. I remember being little and thinking that it must be awful to never be able to sit still. But now, I see that I am the same way.

Wine is traditionally the easiest to eat with. I love beer and sake as well. There are very few libations I won't drink. Last year we did a dinner with Don Julio tequila where each course had to be pared with a glass of straight tequila. It was difficult but I think we crushed it. In general though, wine with my food. This is because unlike beer, wine rarely offends. Sometimes beer and a dish can be polar opposites and wine has that wonderful quality of getting along with food.

I don't know why people call me The Beast. My cooks and I tend to work a lot and very hard. So maybe it comes from that. Or we have a roast beef sandwich on the menu called the Beast. So when they make a comment about the Beast in the kitchen, I never know if they are talking about me or the sandwich (laughs).

Pizza Delicious is awesome. Mike Friedmann. I love that kid to death. He worked for me for four months before I paid him. When he told me he wanted to cook, I sat him down and said everyone wants to be a chef. But you got to think about why you are doing it. You have to get to point of being exhausted and still wanna work. When people ask me if they can stage, I tell them they can't just agree to do it for one day, have to sign up for two. 

This is not a fun job, I work more hours than anyone I know. I am saddened by the things I have lost because of my lifestyle. Brittany, the girl I followed down here, and I aren't together anymore but she has been helping me recover. But cooking is what I want to do. Last week, my mentor came in town. Partly because I'd been shot and also because he had never been to my restaurant. So we went to eat at Boucherie, him, Brittany, and Mike. And that was a very cool thing to eat with my mentor and a kid who considers me his mentor.

Perfect day of eating in New Orleans would begin with eggs at my house cooked by me. Than a po-boy and some sushi. I refuse to name names (laughs).