Boozy Book Review: Which Fork Do I Use With My Bourbon?

An illustrious pair of bourbon authorities share tips for Kentucky style entertaining with historical inspiration

What happens when a bourbon master taster and former food critic get together to write a book on entertaining with bourbon? The result is Which Fork Do I Use With My Bourbon, a guide book for throwing the best Kentucky-style gatherings and bourbon tastings. Co-authors Peggy Noe Stevens—who last year was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame—and Susan Reigler—noted bourbon authority, author and biologist—have decades of experience in bourbon and entertaining between them, making this the go-to reference for all things entertaining with bourbon.

Peggy Noe Stevens, who became the world’s first Bourbon Master Taster in her days at Brown Forman with the Woodford Reserve brand under Angel’s Envy Founder Lincoln Henderson. She’s also the founder of the Bourbon Women Association and a consultant to various distilleries across the United States.

Susan Reigler is a biologist and college Professor, a former food critic for the Louisville Courier-Journal, a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, a past president of Bourbon Women, and has written several books about cocktails, tasting whiskey, Kentucky bourbon tourism, and more.

I recently caught up with the duo to learn more about how this project came together.

“I was in the hotel business,” says Stevens. “A lot of people don’t know that was my career before whiskey. I was in catering and convention services, which is like boot camp for any type of conferences. I did about 30 events a month at the hotel, coming up with menus, china, glass, and silverware, and working with the chefs.”

She says that experience laid the foundation for when she was headhunted by Brown-Forman after her hotel career.

“They put me in charge of a new travel and events department. I did about 100 events a year, everything from conventions to five course dinners in France, traveling around the world executing. That was probably where I gained the finesse of creativity. I executed events for Julia Child, Bobby Flay, and other celebrities. That’s really where I cut my chops.”

(L-R) Susan Reigler and Peggy Noe Stevens

This experience led Stevens to start her own company, and writing this book was always in the back of her mind.

“When I started my company 12 years ago, events came with it,” Stevens says. “I worked with brand destinations. We were doing grand openings, galas, farm to table events to raise money, and, of course, Bourbon Women. Bourbon Women has executed over 200 events since we started almost ten years ago. Events have followed me. When I started my company I had this book in mind and I just couldn’t get to it. I knew all the tastings I did and all of the events I would do, afterward people would come up to me and ask how can I do this at home? We need people to know this is not just for the experts. You can totally do this at home.”

When Stevens asked Susan Reigler, her longtime friend, to join her in creating this book, the partnership felt like a natural fit.

“I grew up in a house where my mother was very good about providing a structure of doing things properly, not in a stuffy way, but every night the family ate around the dining room table,” says Reigler. “We always used my parents’ wedding silver and proper plates. It wasn’t like we were sitting in front of the TV like apparently a lot of families were doing in the 60s.”

Reigler says her family always made the extra effort for guests.

“When we would have friends over at the holidays, the buffet was set out with the silver and the china. It just made people feel comfortable. It was we invited you into our home and we want you to feel special. I also benefited from inheriting what a friend of mine calls ‘late relatives’, which is like these amazing monogrammed napkins from my grandparents. I’ve always appreciated setting a really beautiful table. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but if you use these really beautiful things it makes people feel special when you invite them into your home.”

Reigler regularly writes food and whiskey pairing articles, tasting notes, and bourbon tourism content for several publications as well as local publications in Louisville, Kentucky.

“My regular column in the LEO [Louisville Eccentric Observer] is usually where I go to a restaurant and pair a dish with a beverage,” Reigler says. “My recent one is doing takeout and pairing it with a beverage, and I tell people when you are doing this takeout business and helping to support local businesses, don’t bring it home and eat it out of the carton. Put it on your best tableware and use your best cutlery and your best glasses and make it special.”

Which Fork Do I Use With My Bourbon features diagrams of buffet settings, layouts for cocktail parties, charts to track when certain fruits are in season, flavor intensity charts, recipes, and more. There are chapters for planning parties, putting together basic bourbon tastings, and an entire chapter dedicated to Kentucky Derby parties. But, most importantly, the duo point out that the reader should find their own unique entertaining style rather than just copying what’s in the book.

“Just put your best foot forward,” says Reigler. “There is no magic here. Do what is your style and find your own style. It’s a little bit like being a writer. When you first start to write you have to find your own writer’s voice. It’s the same thing when you’re entertaining—find your own host’s voice. The book gives people examples of a style, but that’s just an example. Find your own style that makes you comfortable and your guests comfortable.”

It’s all about having a good time with friends, and, above all else, Stevens and Reigler want you to know you can do this yourself.

“In looking back after doing seminars on food pairings, tastings, and all of this entertaining, I’m often asked, ‘What is bourbon etiquette?’”, says Stevens. “I’m happy to say we don’t have a bourbon etiquette, because we want everything to be approachable and friendly. The best etiquette you can have is to make your guests feel comfortable in your own home. I want people to know we have a gracious lifestyle in bourbon and we have a heart for hospitality in bourbon, and when you put those two things together you are going to enjoy your guests and your guests are going to enjoy you.”

Collaborating on a book can be difficult if the chemistry between the two writers isn’t just right, but fortunately for Stevens and Reigler it was not a problem.

“Susan and I come from very different backgrounds,” says Stevens. “We grew up differently, we do food differently, and we do tastings differently. The biggest surprise was how much we felt the same way about many of the things in the book, taking what I know and what Susan knows and putting them together, and it all worked.”

Do you want to learn more about the origins of brunch or farm-to-table dinners in barns? There’s a little bit of history in the introduction that ties all these various entertaining methods to today’s soires.

“I very much enjoyed writing the little historical pieces in the introduction,” says Reigler. “It’s gratifying to see the tradition of entertaining in Kentucky dating back to the 18th century. The distilleries are so focused now on the welcoming and the entertaining aspects at their facilities, and that’s why we have a chapter about how they do it. The whole idea of bourbon as a welcoming and social activity, I think our book amplifies that.”

The current pandemic situation has changed a lot about this book release. The pair have already canceled at least 15 engagements, but they plan to delay rather than cancel their book tour. They are doing podcasts and interviews in the meantime, and planning to focus on September Derby themed entertaining, provided it’s safe to have gatherings again.

Reading this book made me feel excited about all the parties and gatherings I will have once it’s over. I have a renewed sense of the urgency to show friends and loved ones how much they mean to me, and what better way to do that than with a bourbon tasting party.

Which Fork Do I Use With My Bourbon is available at online retailers and by ebook, available now. It also features a foreword by Fred Minnick.