When you think of a classic wine-pairing menu, a fancy French restaurant probably comes to mind — a special-occasion spot you might visit once every few years for a lavish birthday dinner. But sommelier and entrepreneur Cha McCoy is here to shift that perspective. She wants you to see wine as part of everyday life, pairing just as beautifully with your mom’s rice and peas as it does with charcuterie.
In her new book, Wine Pairing for the People, McCoy challenges the old-school, Eurocentric rules of sommelier training and invites you to instead explore wine through the lens of culture, history, and flavor. From Moroccan wines to Brazilian vino, McCoy highlights beverages often overlooked on restaurants’ lists, pairing them thoughtfully with food and stories that celebrate various heritages from around the globe. We called up McCoy to dive into some of her favorite surprising pairings and how to make wine less confusing and much more user-friendly.
Katie Couric Media: What’s one pairing or wine experience that feels like “home” to you?
Cha McCoy: Fried chicken and champagne. I’m from Harlem, and my parents specifically love champagne. They would drink champagne on my birthdays when I was a kid.
At Melba’s restaurant in Harlem, they serve fried chicken and waffles, which is a dish that came out of the Harlem Renaissance. So having that with B. Stuyvesant champagne is my legacy, as someone from the neighborhood. I feel like that chicken and champagne combination is literally what I think of the Black experience, and of being a Harlem native.
What’s an example of a pairing you’ve created that completely surprised people?
In the Puerto Rico section of the book, I have this chart where I pair different wines with different types of mofongo, a classic dish made of fried green plantains. It was cool to explore the fact that there’s diversity not just in Puerto Rican or Caribbean cuisine, but even in mofongo itself. That’s one of my favorite moments in the book — having the wine pairing for the chicken mofongo, and pairing the vegan mofongo with Rioja Blanco. I had fun with that.
Do you think that food and wine pairing has been almost gatekept, to exclude certain communities?
Most people learn about sommeliers in America through the dining-out experience. But who’s truly dining at fine-dining restaurants? And which restaurants are able to share food and wine pairings? Usually, in this country, it’s French restaurants. But when I was living in Italy, everyone had wine knowledge, even if you were just finding something to drink with your pizza. However, in America, the casual diner doesn’t usually know much about food and wine pairing. And unfortunately, a lot of restaurants don’t have a sommelier because they can’t afford us.
I thought, How come the food that I like to eat — Senegalese food, lo mein — isn’t talked about in relation to wine? So my goal was to get the wine to the people. The industry thrives off of the folks who buy an everyday pinot for 20 bucks, and those people need to know that there’s something magical about pairing wine with their favorite dish at home, or their favorite takeout.
How do you see the conversation around wine evolving in the next decade?
Restaurants like Tatiana, an Afro-Caribbean place in NYC, are highlighting food from the African diaspora. They’re helping us bring in wine and allowing us to include wine in the dining experience.
In my book, I also wanted to include other types of beverages that we’re known for in the African diaspora, such as rums in the Caribbean. I feel like in order for us to have pride in our food pairings, I also want us to have pride in the beverages that we would naturally drink, if we were from those cultures. I don’t want to dismiss that every country has its own beverage stories.
But my work won’t stop with this book — I want to expose people to even more wine regions. That’s why I highlighted Morocco and Brazil in the book. You may not find some of their wines on your average list, but I wanted people to know that they do have wine cultures. Ask your favorite wine shop, “Hey, do you have any wines from Brazil?” If you don’t ask, they probably think that no one wants them, because countries such as France, Italy, and Spain have dominated the industry for so long.
We don’t see a lot of Mexican wine in our restaurants in this country, though Americans love going to Taco Tuesdays. So if there’s a taco restaurant that everybody loves, how come they’re not pairing their offerings with Mexican wine? If we’re going to enjoy Mexico’s food, then how come we’re not also enjoying the wine that’s being made there?
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