Turning Wine pairings around – Jill Hough offers ‘100 Perfect Pairings’

Reams have been written about pairing wine with food, almost always starting with the food. Yet certain dishes have traditionally developed in European wine regions to go with the local wine: Beef Burgundy for that wine, or pizza with rich local red wine in Naples.

Local author, food writer, recipe developer and culinary instructor Jill Silverman Hough takes exactly that approach in her book, “100 Perfect Pairings: Small Plates to Enjoy with Wines You Love.”

“Food and wine pairing are often presented as intimidating and mystical,” she said. “It is appealing but can be daunting.”

Unlike those who start with rules or food, she starts with the wines — six white varieties and five red plus rosé — and after discussing the wines and what typically pairs well with then, she offers half a dozen or so recipes for each.

Some of the recipes are standards with a twist, like Buffalo drumettes or multi-colored pepper poppers, some original. Most sound delicious and those I’ve tried have been.

They’re also simple to prepare, although many have a number of ingredients to boost the flavors.

Hough’s forte is making food and cooking simple yet special. “A recipe doesn’t have to be complicated to be indulgent,” she said.

She added that her recipes have been influenced by living and working in Napa with its many resources of food and wine.

Although she learned from her parents and grandparents, Hough perfected her craft by studying food science and has developed recipes for corporate clients as well, including Annie’s Inc., Robert Mondavi Winery, Hollandia Produce and the Cherry Marketing Institute.

“Sprinkle a roast chicken with lavender, substitute dried cherries for raisins in a batch of oatmeal cookies, serve grilled salmon on a bed of arugula — all these things take almost no effort, yet they’ll make your otherwise ordinary dishes taste and feel like fancy food,” Hough advised.

She started her career as an advertising copywriter, spending 12 years at agencies in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, on accounts that included TWA, CBS, Huggies and Hershey’s.

She left advertising to open a neighborhood café in Sausalito, which she owned for five years. “It was an awesome opportunity,” she said. “I had never worked in a restaurant in my life, but soon became comfortable preparing five pounds of pasta salad quickly.”

After that, she decided to figure out how to make a living with food without working in a restaurant.

She moved to Napa in 2001 and spent seven years at Copia, starting as a volunteer when it first opened and then serving as a culinary instructor. Her formal credentials include a WSET Advanced Certificate in Wines and Spirits and a food science certificate from the University of Guelph.

She currently teaches at cooking schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her writing and recipes appear regularly in magazines including Bon Appétit, Cooking Light, Fine Cooking, Country Home, Clean Eating and Napa Sonoma.

Hough earlier developed the recipes for the New York Times best seller “Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-Ass Recipes for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!)”, a follow-up to the wildly successful Skinny Bitch diet book.

The Skinny Bitch features 75 vegan versions of mostly familiar foods using mostly familiar ingredients — assuring readers that, by becoming vegan, they need not give up their favorite edible indulgences.

She’s completing a follow-up book, “100 Perfect Pairings: Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love.” It should be out in the spring.

Hough lives in Napa with her husband, Douglas Hough, a graphic designer who specializes in wine marketing and advertising.

Saturday, Sept. 25, she is teaching a class, “Finger Lickin’ Chicken,” at Ramekins Cooking School in Sonoma. She will show how to break down and bone whole chickens as well as a variety of cooking techniques to create flavorful chicken recipes quickly, including Vietnamese chicken sandwiches, buttermilk oven-fried chicken with herby ranch dipping sauce, cashew chicken stir-fry and Moroccan-spiced Cornish hens and roasted root vegetables. The cost is $90.

For more information visit her website, www.jillhough.com.