It is an apparently incontrovertible truth that Chris Manning cooks better than anyone’s mom.

This idea was suggested a while back when we were eating at étoile, the restaurant at Domaine Chandon winery, where Manning is executive chef. My vegetable-phobic son, as he was scraping up the last vestiges of food on his plate, commented, “You know, Mom, if you could cook vegetables that tasted like this, I’d eat them.”

Then, last week, following up on the idea of investigating what Manning does to vegetables, I arrived at étoile to find our newest Register photographer Carl Kiilsgaard devouring a bowl of vegetable rich gazpacho.

“God, this is good,” he exclaimed. “This is better than my mom’s cooking — and she’s a good cook.”

Mothers of the world, send your kids to Manning’s place to get a healthy dose of veggies.

The amiable Manning agreed to share a couple of recipes, including the much-admired gazpacho (“And I don’t usually like gazpacho,” Kiilsgaard noted) and a salad that spotlights pinot noir — both the grapes, which are mixed with salad greens, and the wine, which, reduced, is used in the dressing. The two dishes are served together as part of one of the prix fixe lunch menus étoile offers.

A native of Montana, Manning, who recently turned 30, studied at the California Culinary Academy, before heading to Yountville to work as a line cook at Domaine Chandon five years ago. He now runs the kitchen, overseeing six different menus that range from the splendid a la carte dinners in the elegant restaurant to picnic basket lunches and $9 a plate “nibbles” that are offered on locals’ night — Monday — in the new lounge at the winery. Domaine Chandon is the only winery in the valley that is permitted to have a restaurant on the premises, besides V. Sattui Winery in St. Helena, which has a deli service.

As executive chef at a winery, Manning said, his job entails collaborating with the winemakers as he develops dishes that pair well with the still and sparkling wines Domaine Chandon creates. “I work with them daily,” he said. “I see the wines as they develop.”

His years at Chandon have given him an appreciation for sparkling wines, he said. “I’ll find myself having a glass of sparkling wine on a hot day instead of a beer, which only makes you thirstier. That’s something that never would have happened before.”

For this menu, Manning pairs the salad with an étoile Rosé and the gazpacho with Chandon’s Vintage Brut 1997.

“There’s a good yin/yang with the wine and the gazpacho,” he said. There’s good acid, good fruit and good toastiness. The acid from the tomatoes enhances the wine — they play off each other well.”

And for the under-21 set, the recipes appear to stand well alone.