by Fred Hoyle
Published on A Food Experience.net March 24th 2007
So...
It's been a long time since my last post. Too long – waaaaayy too long. No excuses, but if I had one it would be that for the past nine months or so I've been thoroughly consumed by work. I won't get into the sappy details of how hard I've been working, blah, blah, blah. What it all comes down to is I've neglected one of my passions for too long – living, loving, and sharing with others life in the Finger Lakes, expressed through my love of our region's food and wine.
During this hiatus from A Food Experience.net I've been engaged in a personal struggle to resolve conflicting opinions regarding the New York Wine & Culinary Center in Canandaigua. I've visited the Center a number of times, consulted with foodies like myself, observed the visitors coming and going through it's doors. If you're not familiar with the New York Wine & Culinary Center, think of it as a sort of mecca for those interested in the wine and foods of New York state. It amasses wine selections from all regions of New York – Finger Lakes, Long Island, Hudson Valley, Erie, and Niagara. Food items from their tastings-style restaurant are sourced from the state's growers and producers. Cooking demonstrations in the state-of-the-art Viking equipped educational kitchen hosted by chef greats of the area. A lecture amphitheater wired for the Internet and satellite equipped for distance learning. Can you ask for more? Oh, and by the way, the construction, decor, materials, and landscaping are nothing short of first class.
Okay, so now you expect me to give some ringing endorsement for the Center, and why not? Sounds great, right. Well, it is great – on the surface. With all the glitz, and glitter, fine appointments, awesome gift shop, and the rest, it lacks the essential ingredient that has defined the state's regional wine and culinary scene. The center lacks a soul. For all that you experience at the Center you'll walk out of the door with an awkward feeling that something was something. And that something is the passion that you can only experience traveling the wine trails of the Finger Lakes and other state wine regions. It's along these trails that you can dine at the small cafe along the lake that serves products from the neighboring farmer. At the roadside stand staffed by the Mennonite teenager. And at the winery where the person pouring is likely the same person who pitched in during harvest and bottling. Certainly at the Center you'll taste fabulous New York produced wines, but they'll be served by a disengaged college student who cares little and knows less about what they just poured. If you asked the restaurant wait staff about the particulars of their cheese offerings, chances are you won't get an answer without a referral to the kitchen. In contrast, if you visit a nearby winery you'll have an opportunity to discuss the wine with your server; to learn and enjoy more than the beverage itself but the experience. And there's a good chance you might share that experience with the wine maker himself.
I'm not going to tell you not to visit the Wine & Culinary Center, in fact, if you're near Canandaigua you should if for nothing other than to witness the spectacle of it all. But don't spend too much time, or money, there. Continue your journey into the heart of the Finger Lakes wine region particularly Keuka, and Seneca Lake. Save a little to spend at the local wineries, and keep a bit of an appetite to dine at one of the many wonderful small restaurants or cafe's along the way. Put in that little extra effort to seek what is truly great in the region – the scenery, people, wines, and culinary delights that can only be had by going that extra mile down the road.
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