DiscCookery: The DisDrive 20th Anniversary Cookbook

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Gothe, the award-winning host of the popular CBC Radio Two program
“DiscDrive,” creates a stew of the finer things in life—music,
wine, and good food. It’s not unusual for a cookbook author to
recommend wines as appropriate accompaniments for the recipes. Gothe
goes one step further by also suggesting music to play while cooking.
Eclectic is the best way to describe the selections in all three
categories.

The music is heavy on classical and jazz but includes a bit of
everything from 1960s folk to country-and-western. The criterion for
listing seems to be a match of moods: can the music fit with the food
and wine in a harmonious whole?

The wines are similarly wide-ranging, and include the products of
countries as diverse as Cypress, Tahiti, Chile, and Japan. Canadian
wines receive a generous number of mentions, with vintages from
Manitoba, Newfoundland, Quebec, British Columbia, and Ontario making the
list.

The core of the book is the recipes and these are also eclectic:
Sauerkraut Soup, Blueberry Mincemeat, Drambuie Salmon, Wassail, Grape
Tart. In general, the recipes are adventurous, fussy, and pricey. The
European influence is blatant. They call for lots of expensive
ingredients, a well-stocked spice cabinet, and access to ingredients
associated with international cooking. Wine and whipping cream, garlic,
and juniper berries make repeat appearances. The results promise a
degree of sin (“not something you’re ever going to discuss with your
doctor”), luxury, and, teamed with the wine and music, an experience
not to be forgotten. Some recipe names are intriguing if somewhat too
precious: Baked Cholesterol, Sausage in Bondage. Piggies, in the Middle,
The Pumpkin Number. Others are pure upscale, but turn the page and
you’re confronted by a whole chapter on stews.

Each recipe is introduced with a chatty note: it’s these
“ruminations” that make the book fun to explore, whether from the
kitchen counter or an armchair, with suitable music playing and a glass
of an appropriate wine at hand.