This month's 2 Bottles & 2 Questions is with Stacey Metulynsky & Angie MacRae, who co-host the tv series “THIS FOOD THAT WINE” which airs on Food Network Canada and in 30 other countries around the world.

They are also authors of a new book of the same name. This Food That Wine, the book, features more than 100 recipes with wine pairings, and is very informative. They also recommend quite a few Canadian wines in their book, which is great to see as well!

With Stacey Metulynsky as the established Sommelier & Angie MacRae the Chef, together they make a great team and have plenty of tips to offer wine and food lovers.

Please click here for more information on their new book. And for more information on their tv show please click here.

Enjoy Stacey & Angie's insightful 2 Bottles & 2 Questions!

2 Questions

1. If you were to pick your absolute favourite wine and food match/pairing what would it be and why?

A - I think my favourite wine and food match so far would be Banana Cream Pie with Sauternes. I love not only the flavour, texture and simplicity of the pie, but wrapped up in that is some nostalgia of being a kid. Flash forward into adulthood by adding a sophisticated Sauternes which seems like a complete extension of the dessert, like something that had been missing from an already perfect combination of flavours! I was completely blown away when Stacey and I first introduced these two together.

S – I do love the pie/Sauternes combo but if I had to pick one match to live on the rest of my life, it would have to be the Crispy Scallop and Potato Sandwiches paired up with a Viognier. I already thought that Viognier and scallops were the perfect combo, with the wine’s luscious, ripe fruit flavours matching up so perfectly with the sweet, succulent, tender scallop. But when you add the crispy fried potato and the tangy yet rich citrus butter sauce, it’s a zillion times better. A great wine and food match makes both the wine and the food taste better, and that’s definitely the case with this pairing. As Angie would say, your head melts right off your neck!

2. In all of your food and wine experiences from the TV show to the Book and working together on all sorts of occasions, do the two of you have any really funny stories about working so closely together? Or a time when working in wine that was just truly unforgettable?

A - Making a television show is a truly intense experience. It looks on camera like there are just three of us in the kitchen but behind the scenes there are 20 other brilliant people who see everything, hear everything, who are being paid to catch any little strange noise, a wrinkle in your shirt, a fly away hair. Someone will be applying more make up while someone else adjusts your mike (down the front of your shirt) while someone else is telling you what's going to happen next. The stimulus was what I think Stacey and I perhaps found the most overwhelming. So, in order to sometimes find a much needed moment of calm and a little quiet, we both took to occasionally hiding in the closet. Just for a few minutes. It was a big closet, a walk in, but sometimes one or both of us would just need a moment of calm, quiet. In retrospect, for two girls who were spending already endless time together, this seems like the most bizarre behaviour, but it was a place where we could be unseen and sometimes laugh our heads off at the craziness of our new found job.

S – Angie is right, we have been known to spend an almost unhealthy amount of time together, and with all the new and sometimes strange experiences we’ve shared, I’m lucky that Angie’s so fun to be around! Right from the beginning, working on the “This Food That Wine” project has been a labour of love. The tv show, the promotions, the events, and especially the book. We had no idea how much work writing a book would be – throw together some recipes, write a few wine notes, and voila! Boy, were we wrong. Though the writing took months, it was the photography that really threw us for a loop. Angie and I prepared almost all the recipes in the book and set up a studio in Angie’s living room to take the photographs – all in the space of less than a week! It was insane – we would shop for groceries in the afternoon, go home, cook until the wee hours, sleep for a couple hours, get up at the crack of dawn to finish prepping, then plate and food style until mid-afternoon, when we’d start it all over again. Oh, did I mention it was mid-summer and screaming hot outside? I remember moments every day where we’d stop, look at each other, and not know whether to laugh or cry. I think we usually laughed.

2 Bottles

S – Coyote’s Run Red Paw Vineyard Pinot Noir VQA 2006 ($24) – I make the trek down to Niagara from Ottawa at least once a year, and this past summer, my favourite stop was at Coyote’s Run. We had a really friendly, relaxed visit, and the owner of the winery, Jeff, was out back grilling locally made sausages to try with our wine samples. Every wine I tried impressed me and I believe I left with a couple of boxes to add to my cellar. This Pinot Noir was one of my favourites – the “Red Paw” vineyard has a rare, red clay soil that produces really fruity, aromatic wines, and this one is no exception with fresh, lively cherry and strawberry aromas and flavours, balanced by the classic spicy, earthy notes we know and love in a good Pinot. It’s perfect with the Warm Duck Breast Salad with Hazelnut Dressing, one of my favourite recipes in the book. PS – it’s bottled under screw cap – one more reason to love it!


A - Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico (Vintages Essentials 433417, $37.65) – especially at this time of year, there’s nothing like a big, mouth-filling, soul-satisfying wine, and Amarone is one of my favourites. It’s almost port-like and I love serving it on its own, relaxing on the couch next to a toasty warm fire, or with a plate of strong, stinky cheeses or bittersweet chocolate. Nothing says cozy and relaxing like a glass of Amarone.