Saturday Kitchen 7.4

(by susie)

I’ll be honest: I’m still glowing with pride.

I’ve always had a lot of time for Paul Rankin, an extremely articulate and thoughtful chef, not to mention wine connoisseur.

So when, on this week’s show, Paul says things like: ‘Susie always gets it right’ and ‘That’s one of the most perfect food [and wine] matches I’ve ever tasted on this show’, it means a great deal to me.

Thank you, Paul!

As for the details, Paul was cooking spiced soy roast chicken with a medley of vegetables. This aromatic, succulent take on the classic chicken roast was engagingly subtle when we road-tested it with various wines – but by far and away the best was the Cono Sur Viognier 2010 (£6.98, Waitrose).

Paul commented: ‘For me, Susie always gets it right. The wine is beautifully aromatic, with a hint of residual sugar to balance the aromatics and honey.’

James thought it was, ‘great with this dish’, while Alexis Gauthier said it was ‘perfect for breakfast’ (referring to the time the show was going out rather than a general statement, one hopes).

Alexis, meanwhile, was knocking up chicken wings with potato gnocchi, for which I recommended the Quadro Sei Gavi (£7.49, Marks & Spencer).

‘Goes very well: perfect,’ observed Alexis, while James described it as, ‘Another great choice’.

Paul’s assessment was that it was, ‘one of the most perfect food matches I’ve ever tasted on this show. It’s just zoning right in on flavours of this; I’m a huge fan of modern Italian whites.’

All in all, a great result. You can see my wine excerpts from the show, filmed in Eastbourne, on the videos below. The studio guest was Blake Harrison (Inbetweeners) and the show also featured archive material from Rick Stein, Celebrity MasterChef and Keith Floyd.

You can find all the recipes, including James Martin’s Sirloin steak with peppercorn sauce (Graham Beck Antony’s Yard 2009, £6.39, Majestic) and grilled pork chop with cauliflower cheese (DMZ Chardonnay 2011, £7.99, Majestic) on the BBC Food site here.