Better Homes and Gardens






Being in Better Homes and Gardens is a thrill. And to be part of its featured cover story is a chef's dream. So when food editor Nancy Hopkins said they loved the "Thanksgiving in Good Taste" concept and would like to do a piece on Kendall-Jackson's Executive Chef Justin Wangler for the November issue, we were obviously happy.

When you pick up the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens, you will see the beautiful finished product that, like fine wine, required much preparation. Here's the background...

Many food and wine writers are tired of the endless and futile "what-to-pair-with-Thanksgiving-Dinner-stories." Perhaps the trouble with the Thanksgiving feast is that, over the years, "feast" has overshadowed "thanks." The originally humble meal is today an institution of orgiastic gluttony-courses numbering in the dozens, diners taking pride in how much they can pack in, leaving no course unsampled, and for some, the underlying tone of thanks.

It may be that this annual, obligatory frenzy has deadened our awareness - not only of the meaning of the holiday, but of what we're missing. Did it occur to us that the cook might not enjoy the burden? And that often there is no way to really pair wines with the kaleidoscope of foods offered.

Justin Wangler, executive chef at Kendall-Jackson Winery, explored this theme in the story "Thanksgiving in Good Taste." His menu slows the meal, tempers the frenzy, and pares the selections down to a few key courses, each of them delicious, each in harmony with the others, all of them easy-to-prepare and inexpensive. The courses are designed to go specifically with three Kendall-Jackson wines - Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Noir.

For this story, the "Thanksgiving" shoot was scheduled for mid-July at Justin's house in Santa Rosa, California, during a heat wave. Now California does have sunny weather and many Thanksgivings here are lovely; nonetheless, making it look like autumn, with guests in warm clothing and kitchens heating up was a bit of a challenge for the photographer.

The Wanglers' home is lovely and cozy. When twelve or more people, equipment, food, wine bottles, platters, lights, cords and props converge within, it becomes small. For three days, Justin and his wife Leeanne (who was seven-months pregnant) completely turned their home over to the crew. The crew, in turn, became like family members visiting from out-of-town. Ten-hour work-days together, followed by dinners together, hosting our new magazine-friends and Justin's actual cousins, resulted a genuine feeling of the holiday itself. The smell of turkey accelerated the transformation.

When shooting a Thanksgiving story, a turkey, naturally, is one of the subjects. The thing about a turkey is that you can only carve it once if you don't like the lighting or the slice, you're in trouble. That is unless, of course, you have a culinary team that can cook six turkeys for you. Fortunately, Kendall-Jackson's team did exactly that. Each day the team trucked in its portable oven and grills, set up in Justin's back yard and prepared whatever was needed for the recipes. Fortunately for us all, the recipes are fairly easy to duplicate and enjoy, which is the point of the article. Even easier, thanks to Justin, is finding the right wines to pair with them.

Hope your holidays are as enjoyable for you as it was for us preparing it...behind the scenes.