Season: Wine Country Food, Farming, & Friends
By Justin Wangler • Tracey Shepos Cenami
There’s a fresh, relaxed way of cooking going on in the California wine country. And in the kitchens and gardens of Jackson Family Wines, it’s a happy way of life. It’s about crafting food that starts with what’s growing in the soil, grazing in the fields, and swimming in the sea—food prepared with a light hand, seasoned with confidence, and served with casual sophistication. It’s about treating wine not as an afterthought to pair with a dish, but as a starting point for that dish to spring from.
In Season, chefs Justin Wangler and Tracey Shepos Cenami and pastry chef Robert “Buttercup” Nieto share more than a hundred of their favorite recipes for everything from special occasions to everyday meals. You’ll find complete menus and ideas for seasonal celebrations—from a springtime garden party and a stress-free summer picnic to an autumn harvest celebration and a holiday finger-food feast—plus a year’s supply of seasonal starters, salads, soups, sides, mains, and desserts.
With user-friendly tips on growing and sourcing produce from master culinary gardener Tucker “Farmer T” Taylor, and wine-pairing notes from master sommelier Michael Jordan, this is more than a cookbook. It’s a kitchen companion you’ll turn to winter, spring, summer, and fall for inspiration.
I started editing most of the reviews in 2016 because my PhD in English (a humblebrag if you’ve ever seen one) has to be put to use somehow. So I know “the about” all the books and how good they are, which is super cool in general but also terrible for my budget. And I’m the one insisting on the Oxford comma. It’s the hill I’ll die on. I would kidnap Lily the office dog if a) I didn’t have three cats, b) I don’t also love Heidi and Ross and would never hurt them, and c) I didn’t just make a public record of intent to commit a crime. I also help with posting articles to the websites and doing book round-up articles.
