Canada's Top Chefs Talk of Wine

Written by Lynn Orgyzlo | 14 June 2010

They’re legends in their own right, you’ve seen them on TV, they forge new culinary ground and they’re masters of their own edible domain. So how do these icons of culinary celebrity feel about wine?

“I probably drink more wine than the average guy, and know less about it than I think I do,” says the chef that is larger than the average guy. This is Chef Michael Smith, host of Chef at Home and Chef at Large, both the highest-rated Canadian series on the Food Network. His latest series, Chef Abroad, embraces wine as part of a polished lifestyle.

The first time Smith’s head was turned by wine was at Mission Hill Winery while with an old friend, Chef Michael Allemeier, and a bottle Oculus. “I was simply hanging out with an old buddy, casually, perhaps not the formal occasion that one figures such a wine commands,” reminisces Smith. He was impressed with the wine’s depth of character, and it changed his perception of the possibilities of Canadian wines. “I now think it’s one of the top three wines in the country.”

Smith is not one to get too high up on the complexities of oak or the nuances of terroir, nor does he like to drink alone. In fact, wine has no significance to him other than the sheer enjoyment it brings to his friends and to the table. Smith feels the people at the table are far more important than what’s on the table. There’s always wine around the Smith house waiting to be opened for something. It simply becomes part of the fun of the evening, whether at a dinner party, a formal occasion, a spontaneous get-together or just a relaxing night with his wife, Rachel.

When it comes to cooking and wine, Smith likes to keep it simple. “If you like the flavour of the wine in the glass you’ll like it in the food,” says Michael. When Smith cooks with wine he uses the whole bottle. Winter stews are an event at his house on Prince Edward Island. Michael and his son Gabriel like to build a roaring fire in their hearth. When it dies down, they simmer a stew in a giant pot over the glowing embers for hours. In goes an entire bottle of any wine he likes to drink. All Michael recommends is that the wine you cook with be big-bodied and full-flavoured, and that you use every last drop.

Smith doesn’t have a wine cellar, but he does have a cold cellar in the house where he stores preserves and vegetables for the winter. “It’s the most logical place to keep wine,” says Michael. Smith has more empty bottles kicking around his house than full ones. “The only full bottles of wine in my cellar are there for special reasons. For example, I have a few dozen bottles of essential New Zealand Pinot Noirs because Anita Stewart likes it and I can’t wait for her next visit.”

Although Michael loves his red wine, he admits to having a white side too. “I’ve been drinking a lot of Viognier and bottles of Conundrum.” Smith was seduced by the latter wine’s complex floral and honey-like flavours and its great depth of complexity. For a man who has no problem describing food, he finds it hard to discern exactly what’s in the glass, other than that it’s rich, deep and amazing on the palate.