By Kathryn Reed

Food and wine pairings are nothing new, but beer is the beverage often associated with barbecue. But not if you are Larry Rice.

Rice owns The Best Barbeque Catering Company in Gardnerville. He is bringing his cooking apparatus to Valhalla four times this season to pair his food with wines from El Dorado County.

On Aug. 24 will be the second event this year, with Bella Grace Vineyards being the featured winery.

“The inspiration for the pairings comes from my love of grilling. I’ve been doing this 20 years professionally,” Rice said.

He is familiar with the wines each winery has so that way he knows what best to put on the grill.

Primarily he cooks with mesquite charcoal for the smoky flavor.

Rice has created three rubs and a barbecue sauce (not yet sold commercially) that he likes to use on the meat and fish he barbecues.

“We have a couple barbecues on trailers and several smaller portable units as well,” Rice said. One trailer is what he brings to the South Shore event. “Everything we do we do on location. Nothing is parboiled or precooked. We put it on the grill fresh and it’s served as soon as it’s off the grill.”

Tickets to the events – Aug. 24, Sept. 21, Oct. 19 – must be purchased ahead of time so Rice knows how much food to bring. Tickets are $34.95 and available online.

This is the first year the Tahoe Tallac Association has had events like this. Fifteen percent of the proceeds go back to the organization.

A list of the remaining events at the Valhalla Art, Music and Film Festival are online.