What's Cookin' Today Hour ONE:
Cinnabar Winemaker George Troquato Tells Us About His Latest Crop
Cinnabar Winery produces award-winning wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains, California’s Central Coast, and other distinguished growing regions such as Sonoma County, the Red Hills of Lake County, the Clements Hills (above Lodi), and Santa Clara Valley.
The Tasting Room is situated along the “Saratoga Wine Trail”, offering daily wine sampling, gift and decorative accessories, custom gift baskets, regional festivals, corporate events and lifestyle seminars.
About George: Winemaker George Troquato always knew he would be in the farming business. “I love agriculture … it follows the seasons,” says George. “There is a beginning, a middle and an end. You do your best to make a wine; then it takes on a life of its own.”
George was born in the southern California city of Riverside. A move north brought him to the town of Los Gatos in 1966. He was an active member of the Future Farmers of America while attending Campbell’s Westmont High School. His father’s grape growing and winemaking hobby introduced George to the wine industry in his pre-teen years.
“I cut my teeth on old vine zinfandel from the Santa Clara Valley,” says George. “Winemaking at the age of 12 is anything but romantic. While other kids were playing baseball, I was helping my dad with a winemaking hobby that became a commercial winery in 1985.”
Intent on continuing the family winemaking tradition, George graduated from the California Polytechnical Institute (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo in 1985 with a degree in crop science.
George gained valuable cellar experience at a few other wineries before joining Cinnabar in 1990. He helped his father at Troquato Vineyards from 1985–88, worked at J. Lohr in 1989 and 1990, and spent the summer of 1990 in the Beaujolais region of France.
“I can’t imagine a more hard working, loyal and committed employee,” said Cinnabar Founder Tom Mudd about his winemaker. “George challenges the status quo and pushes everyone else. In fact, he literally ran from task to task in his early days at Cinnabar.”
Away from the winery, George enjoys quality time with his wife Kristi, daughter Camilla and sons Dominic and Xavier. They have two pets: a Vizsla named Oliver and a Chinese Fighting Fish. He also enjoys cooking, gardening, snow skiing and rollerblading. His favorite food is grilled lamb chops with fresh garlic and rosemary accompanied by a bottle of Cinnabar Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir. He continues to help his father make wine and farm heirloom tomatoes.
George has a profound understanding about the finality of winemaking: “Mother Nature makes a different offering every year, but you only get 20 to 30 vintages in a lifetime.” With many successful harvests under his belt, he is making the most of his chances.
For more info, go to http://cinnabarwine.com!
A Taste of Peru in Enchanting Encinitas! 
Owner Monica Szepesy Tells Us All About Her Restaurant, Q'ero!
One of the most elegant and classy restaurants on the Encinitas strip, Q'ero is a fine dining establishment that specializes in Peruvian and South American food. Its dining philosophy is in tune with the "slow food" movement, focusing on food preparation as an artistic craft.
For more info, go to http://qerorestaurant.com/!
What's Cookin' Today Hour TWO:
Traveling Time! Larry Lipson Gives Us Wine Bargains From Chile & Argentina!
Reporting from Costa Rica, CRN's international wine correspondent Larry Lipson will tell us about two inexpensive wines he's discovered: an under-$10 cabernet sauvignon-merlot blend from Chile and an equally bargain-priced cabernet sauvignon from Argentina's famous Mendoza Valley.
Sam The Cooking Guy Helps Us Grill a Better (and More Interesting) Meal!
Do you like to grill, but are bored out of your mind by cooking the same old stuff? Or maybe you never cook outside because the equipment intimidates you. Whatever the reason, Sam can help. Sam will tell us:
- Why not enough women grill - and how to change that!
- How to keep grilling costs low in this economy!
- How to grill indoors!
Sam the Cooking Guy (Sam Zien) is about an everyday guy (ok, so he has 12 Emmys) who has found a way to make cooking casually understandable. With no fancy equipment and by speaking English instead of ‘chef-speak,' he's sort of the everyman of television cooking. The show is shot right in his house – and he cooks with his kids, dogs and neighbors occasionally around – just like we all do. There's no fois gras... no white truffle oil, no ‘Peruvian mountain-raised squab in sesame-lime-soy marinade stuffed with braised forest turnips and wild inoki mushrooms in a hand pressed plum and raspberry glaze'. He's just a regular guy, using regular words showing how to cook easy, great food... Food that's ‘big in taste and small in effort'. It's a handful of ingredients and a few steps – that's it. This is a cooking show "for the rest of us," he likes to say. And now it's on several networks and stations.
Just Grill This! is Sam's new book and it features Sam the Cooking Guy’s simple and occasionally unconventional recipes for cooking anything on the grill. With his trademark irreverence and humor, Sam demystifies the age-old process of cooking with fire—and he leaves nothing out. From the same guy who brought you Cap’N Crunch Seared Tuna and Mashed Potato Tacos in his second book, you’ll find everything from great dogs and a week’s worth of burgers to seafood and desserts.
For more info, go to http://www.thecookingguy.com/!