Happy holidays. I have just posted my new Winter/Valentine’s Day 2010 class schedule at www.chefjacques.com. A cooking class makes an excellent gift for the foodie in your life. None of us need any more stuff around the house, so give the gift of good food and wine this year. You may also purchase gift certificates for future classes on my website.  For information visit my website.  We have a few seats remaining for the December 12, Champagne Celebration cooking demonstration and lunch.

The menu for our first class in the New Year is inspired by last month’s trip to Alsace. In addition to visiting our cousins (I’m pretty sure that everyone in Alsace is related to me somehow), my Strasbourg family treated me to an excellent birthday dinner at my cousins, Celine and Cedric’s new restaurant, Chez Nous, near the cathedral (I know they are family but it truly was memorable). I also had important meetings with several of the vintners who supply the L’Auberge with Alsatian wines. (They tell us that we serve more Alsatian wines than any other restaurant in the country.) With the dollar in a nosedive, I’m working with the wineries to keep their fine wines on our list.  There is certainly a bit of nervousness on both sides about how the value of the dollar will affect the importation of French wines. Of course, that nervousness always seemed to subside a bit when we got to the tasting part of our meetings.

Gewürztraminer is the quintessential Alsation wine and popular throughout France. This distinctive wine deserves to be enjoyed more here in the United States. The past several years have been very good years for gewürztraminer grapes and some very delicious wines of this variety are now being released into the markeplace.  Both Jean Baptiste Adam, who will be hosting a class in the Spring and Maison Trimbach , whose wines are featured on the January 30 cooking demonstration, produce excellent gewürztraminer. These wines are especially good with foods that have spicy or smoky flavors, so think about having a glass with your smoked salmon at brunch or with cuisines like Thai and Indian that are sometimes harder to correctly pair with wines. Naturally, a glass of late harvest gewürztraminer goes best with a warm slab of  Foie Gras as you sit by a cozy fire here at L’Auberge Chez François.

Also, as you prepare for the holidays, you may be heading to the wine store for some Champagne. I’m often asked about my preferences in the Champagne and sparkling wine arena. One can become overwhelmed with the variety and price-range in the stores. The Alsatian sparkling wine, called Cremant d’Alsace, is one of the best values. You can find bottles in the $20-$40 range that are excellent. Of course, there are any number of delicious Champagnes out there, most from the larger houses.

We will be featuring three excellent small producers at the December 12 Champagne Celebration: Haton Blanc de Blanc, Francois Billon Brut and Guy Charlemagne Brut Rose

If you are looking to splurge, you will not go wrong with any one of them.

Hopefully, these tips will help as you plan your holiday celebrations (at least in choosing the booze, which really is the most important part, isn’t it?). I leave you with my annual chef’s Christmas holiday poem.

Love begins in the kitchen,

Chef Jacques