THE COMEBACK KID

Is an article written by the great Julia Reed for The New York Times for March 23, 2003.

“I owe my much-valued friendship with the screenwriter Robert Harling to the brilliant American chef Jeremiah Tower and his intrepid imagination.” 

Nothing about Harling impressed her as much as the fact that “he had read the same tiny aside I had in Tower's first book, the 1986 ''New American Classics,'' about the merits -- and the decadence -- of drinking Château d'Yquem with a ‘rich, aged, perfectly cooked roast beef.’ ''

“Now Bobby and I both knew a lot about the merits of drinking this most extravagant of all Sauternes with ripe nectarines or juicy mangoes. We knew it often married well with shellfish, especially lobster, and we certainly knew that it was damn good on its own. But I had puzzled over Tower's audacious combination for years, and I was delighted to find that someone else had, too, and even more delighted when he proposed that we try it at his [Harling’s] house, with him cooking and providing the wine. So we did, carefully following the instructions about ''chewing the…