Wine & Country Living

This week I visited my old friend and associate Chef/ Organic Activist Jesse Cool. Back in the early '90s, Jesse asked me to take her place as Executive Chef at her popular Flea Street Café in Menlo Park, California, while she wrote her first cookbook titled, "Tomatoes."

Today, with five cookbooks and three restaurants to her credit, she invites me to dinner and picks my brain for cutesy titles for future recipes. This time however, I can't spit any off-the-cuff ideas to her because I have a cookbook on a publisher's table, and rules state it's a conflict of interest to comply.

So we talk about the second most important thing between two woman: MEN!

Sitting on the porch, overlooking Palo Alto below, dissecting the opposite sex, a single-engine airplane kept buzzing around our conversation. I asked, "Is that Larry Ellison?" She answered, "I am afraid so, "and we both laughed at the naughty multibillionaire and his perpetual breaking of bay-area aviation rules and regulations by flying outside designated fly space. I guess when you're Larry, anything is possible, including Oracle Software.

Dinner was served, and I opened a Walla Walla '08 Abeja Syrah, a northern Rhone-styled red, nose quaffed in violets, tongue in sweet spice and truffle nuance. My hostess offered an '05 Santa Cruz Mountain Thomas Fogerty Syrah.

Noting Syrah is a favorite red wine of mine, I was disappointed in the Fogerty Syrah. I believe it had something to do with the Santa Cruz Mountain terroir, a rather thin soil naturally amended in oak, possibly making for a less spicy, more bacon and caramel nuance. However, about an hour into dinner, a mutual Chef and friend arrived with a bottle of Navarro Ridge's black cedar Pinto Noir, and this writer was in total heaven!

Next morning I boarded a jet for Seattle to Wally and sat waiting for take-off thinking about the last 24 hours of my life and how lucky I am to know our Walla Walla winemakers. So, here's to Abeja winemaker extraordinary John Abbott and his '05 Abeja Syrah, which earns 99 points from Wine and Country Living!

Congratulations John, you really know your quaffing! Until next week, "Eat Art, Drink Imagination!"

Chopped Chicken Curry Salad (Pasture-Raised Chicken, Dried Apricots and Cashews) Serves 4

4-poached, cold breasts of chicken, chopped

1-cup dried plump apricots, diced

½-cup golden raisins, diced

2-green onions, diced

½-cup whole egg mayo

1-teaspoon curry powder

1-teaspoon cardamom

2-tablespoons honey

1/6-teaspoon red pepper flakes

2-tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Method: In a bowl, add all ingredients and mix well. On four plates, compose lettuce and pile chicken salad on each plate. Sprinkle all in chopped mint and serve with a great Syrah wine.

Hear Judith Speak @ www.chefjudithhenderson.com.