A fresh out of drama school server at Pastis restaurant told me that the most intimidating aspect of learning the wine list was not memorizing the grape names, regions and descriptors for each wine.

As an aspiring actor, he finds it pretty easy to recite all the detailed wine notes that I update with each weekly wine list change. His stumbling block was this: with several dozens of food items on the menu, how could he possibly suggest a wine pairing for each food item?

In my regularly updated wine notes handed out to all servers, I suggest a few food dishes to pair with each wine. The notes I write would be cumbersome if I suggested all food dishes that might go well with each wine. Sometimes I generalize and suggest larger categories of food items with a specific wine. For example, I might write, "Our Sancerre by the glass matches well with all of our green salads and raw bar items."

So what kind of no nonsense tool could I relay to wine and food pairing novices to help make solid suggestions for each and every specific food item on the lunch and dinner menus? After much calculated, at-my-desk thought with no real reward, the answer came to me as I was at home searching for a lemon to squeeze on a just-cooked flounder fillet. I had no lemon in house. But I did see in the back of the fridge a just purchased 2005 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. I popped it open, poured a couple of ounces in a cup, dipped my fingers in it and then flicked the zesty Sauvignon Blanc on the flounder. It was a perfect lemon juice stand-in, and in some ways more interesting than lemon.

Now my advice to new servers is worded more or less like this:

"If you're not sure what wine to pair with a food, just ask yourself what food dish might taste better if you were to dip your fingers into a glass of wine and flick it all over the dish? It's sort of obvious. Oysters flicked with Muscadet would be great, but the oysters would be overwhelmed and taste rather gross if you flicked inky-dark purple/red Petite Syrah on them.

A hamburger flicked with Muscadet wouldn't help the burger and might even make it taste odd (think high acid lemon drizzled on a burger...yuck), but maybe a Napa red Zinfandel flicked on the burger would taste good.

Condiments' colors are a giveaway when it comes to wine and food pairings. Lemon is clear, bright yellow and tastes good with salads. Think of wines with similar color. Deep dark red wines (like ketchup or barbecue sauce) often taste great with darker meats."