Salon Saturday on Oscar Night March 12

We have three events to cover today, the Academy Awards, Opera Southwest’s Turandot and St. Patrick’s Day. First we’ll cover wines for St. Pats and then a new feature for Salon Saturday; cooking with wine. Then an overview of Puccini’s Turandot. For the Academy awards we use Las Vegas to compute the odds of determining what the Best Picture will be. Finally, we’ll throw in a little physics as we cover parallel universes. All this is on Salon Saturday!

Wines for St. Patrick’s Day

While beer and even green beer make a strong showing on this day, there is much to celebrate with wine as well. The Irish love beer and whisky in the jar, but many of their foods cry out for wine, so a little food & wine pairing will follow.

St. Patrick’s Day

• Saint Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century, observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran Churches.
• Patrick was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland.
• At age sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland
• He escaped but later returned to convert the pagan Celts, which was later translated as driving out the snakes, of which there are none in Ireland.
• The largest North American St. Pat’s parade is in Montreal, not NYC
• Green beer is an American idea, the Irish would never contaminate their beer that way. Fortunately no one puts it in an Irish stout.

Lamb roasts and stews

Lamb is a very strong-flavored meat and needs a good red wine or an Irish stout. Lamb roasts and chops are brilliant with a Pinot Noir or Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon if you wish to go a bit heavier. In New Mexico I love the Milagro Syrah wines so here is winemaker Rich Hobson’s description.

Grown on the warm Corrales hillside in sandy soils, barrel aged in French Oak for 21 months creating an Old World style. The wine displays aromas of red boysenberry, earth and leather, juicy flavors of red currant and pomegranate, round texture, medium tannin, balanced acidity and a long finish.  It will reward bottle aging. 13.5% alcohol, $32.

• Lamb stews generally load up on root vegetables so a wider range of red wines will work.
• Boneless leg of lamb I do in a butterfly-cut also called spatchcock, flattened and cooked like a thick steak. I usually do it on the grill. Bone-in leg of lamb needs a good carver.
• Fadge (Irish potato pancake) goes well with a Riesling.
• O’Brien jackets are potato skins with some potato left in and then filled with bacon, cheese and whatever comes to hand. Not a good choice for a diet, but this is St. Pats and he’ll forgive you.
• Irish soda bread is best with Irish coffee, besides that should be indulged the following morning when all thought of wine is banished from your brain.
• If you are serving corned beef and cabbage do remember the Irish in Ireland usually don’t serve it. That came about in places like NYC from the Jewish community who shunned pork.
• In Ireland lamb, pork and bacon are the traditional meal with potatoes, of course.
• My first alcohol, at 21 mind you, was an Irish coffee in San Francisco

Cooking with White Wine

I have always maintained that one should never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. By cooking with wine I mean the wine you add to your dish, not what you drink while cooking. However, that’s just a general suggestion that leaves out how do you cook with wine? Never fear, Wine Folly has that information on tap so let’s explore cooking with dry white wine.

Dry white wines that have low or no residual sugar are preferred for cooking lighter dishes such as poultry, soups, seafood and vegetables. The examples here list the types of white wines to go with the previous categories. Since most recipes call for a cup or less of wine, there is plenty left in the bottle to enjoy by the glass. While white wines can last up to a week in your fridge, you get an extra week for those wines you reserve for cooking.

Of course if you’re desperate you can certainly drink the wine beyond a week. I’ve done it many times with mixed results.

White meat, cream sauces, and gravies pair with rich dry white wines

• Chardonnay
• Viognier
• Chenin Blanc
• Viura aka Macabeo, a Spanish white

Denser and intensely flavored dry whites wine like Chardonnay are a better balance for cream sauces, gravy, and chicken. Chicken and Chardonnay are usually my first choice and of course, being the most popular white means you have many options.

Cooking with wine in a cream sauce or gravy requires a bit more expertise as it’s more difficult to balance acidity or monitor how much of the wine has reduced. The recommendation here is to reduce your wine prior to blending in the cream. A basic rule of thumb is the longer you cook the wine, the less alcohol will be in the dish. It can take over 2 hours of simmering to completely remove the alcohol. In other words the number one ingredient you need is patience if you need a full reduction.

Seafood and shellfish pair with crisp dry white wines

• Pinot Gris, French or Pinot Grigio, Italian style; a zesty choice
• Vinho Verde sometimes has slight carbonation, my choice would be Albariño from the Rías Baixas area. You get the taste of the sea in every glass.
• Colombard: A dry white with high acidity, often made into brandy. Paul Masson Chablis (Colombard, Chenin Blanc) is only recommended for cooking and it is not Chablis!
• Verdicchio, originated in Marche, Italy loved for sweet, peachy aromatics and oily texture.
• Picpoul de Pinet: My favorite oyster wine. Not sure how much would end up in the pot.

Crisp dry white wines, such as Pinot Grigio, add a fruity, mineral character that is perfect for cooking seafood, Picpoul even more so. The acidity cuts through the fat of some types of fish but be careful to balance acidity.

Vegetables with herbal dry white wines

• Sauvignon Blanc: a great all-purpose and popular white
• Grüner Veltliner: Austria’s lean, herbaceous, and peppery white that’s extra-crisp
• Verdejo: An herbaceous white grown almost exclusively in the Rueda region of Spain

Sauvignon Blanc is a classic light wine with fruity, herbal, and floral flavors and one of my go-to wines for cooking. That’s partly because I always have a lot in my wine cellar.

And the winner is: 2023 Academy Awards

The 95^th awards ceremony will be held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on March 12, 2023. Now is a good time to view the latest releases at a theatre near you or in your home, streaming. The odds makers have reordered the list to most likely, least likely to take home the prize. If you plan to take home the door prize at your Oscar party; here are the odds.

Best Picture Nominees

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (-750)
2. All Quiet on the Western Front – Edward Berger (+1100)
3. The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh (+1800)
4. Top Gun: Maverick – Joseph Kosinski (+2900)
5. The Fabelmans – Steven Spielberg (+3500)
6. TAR – Todd Field (+6500)
7. Elvis – Baz Luhrmann (+8000)
8. Women Talking – Sarah Polley (+10000)
9. Avatar: The Way of Water – James Cameron (+10000)
10. Triangle of Sadness – Ruben Ostlund (+10000)

Best Actor Nominees

1. Brendan Fraser: The Whale (-170)
2. Austin Butler: Elvis (+125)
3. Colin Farrell: The Banshees of Inisherin (+1800)
4. Paul Mescal: Aftersun (+4100)
5. Bill Nighy: Living (+8000)

Best Actress Nominees

1. Michelle Yeoh: Everything Everywhere All at Once (-125)
2. Cate Blanchett: TAR (-115)
3. Andrea Riseborough: To Leslie (+2900)
4. Michelle Williams: The Fabelmans (+3400)
5. Ana de Armas: Blonde (+5000)

Best Supporting Actor Nominees

1. Ke Huy Quan: Everything Everywhere All at Once (-2000)
2. Barry Keoghan: The Banshees of Inisherin (+1400)
3. Brendan Gleeson: The Banshees of Inisherin (+1800)
4. Judd Hirsch: The Fabelmans (+3400)
5. Brian Tyree Henry: Causeway (+4200)

Best Supporting Actress Nominees

1. Angela Bassett: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (+115)
2. Kerry Condon: The Banshees of Inisherin (+200)
3. Jamie Lee Curtis: Everything Everywhere All at Once (+200)
4. Hong Chau: The Whale (+3400)
5. Stephanie Hsu: Everything Everywhere All at Once (+3400)

Best Director Nominees

1. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert: Everything Everywhere All at Once (-1200)
2. Steven Spielberg: The Fabelmans (+850)
3. Todd Field: TAR (2900)
4. Martin McDonagh: The Banshees of Inisherin (+3500)
5. Ruben Ostlund: The Triangle of Sadness (+6500)

Best Adapted Screenplay Nominees

1. Women Talking: Sarah Polley (-170)
2. All Quiet on the Western Front: Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ion Stokell (+125)
3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: Rian Johnson (+2300)
4. Top Gun: Maverick: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer & Christopher McQuarrie (+2900)
5. Living: Kazuo Ishiguro (+3400)

Best Original Score Nominees

1. Babylon: Justin Hurwitz (-200)
2. All Quiet on the Western Front: Volker Bertelmann (+175)
3. The Fabelmans: John Williams (+1000)
4. The Banshees of Inisherin: Carter Burwell (+2300)
5. Everything Everywhere All at Once: Son Lux (+2900)

Best Original Screenplay Nominees

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (-125)
2. The Banshees of Inisherin: Martin McDonagh (-115)
3. The Fabelmans: Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner (+2300)
4. TAR: Todd Field (+2300)
5. Triangle of Sadness: Ruben Ostlund (+3400)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022): Dir: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert with Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis Rated R, 2:19 Action, adventure, comedy

A middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.

In other words, alternate parallel universes; a concept that has been around for a long time; at least in science fiction. Theoretical descriptions have been advanced by scientists since the 1960s so here are some concepts to puzzle through.

Parallel Universes or a Multiverse

Physics: any of a hypothetical collection of undetectable universes that are like our known universe but have branched off from our universe due to a quantum-level event. The Big Bang theory defines an inflating universe, although expanding at a very slow rate.

Max Tegmark, a professor at MIT, defines four distinct types of parallel universes.

A type 1 parallel universe assumes space is infinite (it very well could be) and the physical laws of these other universes are the same as ours, but are so far away from us that we are causally disconnected, meaning that no messages can be received or sent because we can only receive messages from within our own universe, or bubble as it is sometimes defined.

A type 2 parallel universe is dependent on two other theories, which might prove it exists. And I know you wanted to know about them. These are the Inflation Model and the Ekpyrotic Theory. According to Prof. Tegmark, because of ongoing inflationary processes in these universes and ours, space between the other universes and our own is expanding faster than the speed of light – ergo, they are too far for any communication to occur.

A type 3 parallel universe is the universe most commonly assumed when talking about parallel universes. That is the alternate/mirrored reality universe. This type of parallel universe arises out of the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of Quantum Mechanics to approach the phenomenon of wave-function collapse. The MWI theory states that for every possible quantum option, there is another universe in which such an option is realized. A number of movies have employed this category like Sliding Doors (1998) and Look Both Ways (2022). Both movies are very good by the way.

A type 4 parallel universe posits that the mathematical equations and physical laws that govern these types of universe are very different from our own. The type 3 parallel universe is centered on the idea that these co-existing universes correspond with one another in some way; whereas, the type 4 parallel universes can obey laws that are completely contradictory to ours, with both being equally valid.

So now armed with this information you can go boldly into your cinema multiplex with the concept of multiverse firmly in mind. Or you just might want to forget all this and just get the popcorn.