Right after college, I worked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a fancy farm-to-table restaurant in Westchester, NY on a beautiful farm. I did a restaurant management rotation program, and my first job in service was as a cocktail waitress. This may make me sound faint-hearted, but it was the scariest job I've ever had. Balancing 12 dirty martinis while the stern French general manager clocked your every move is not an experience I'd like to repeat. Plus, people with high expectations would ask you about wine, and I literally just lied!
After Blue Hill, I moved to Ireland to attend cooking school - also on a beautiful farm - before working as a chef in London for a year. Never in those years working in restaurants was wine explained to me, even though it's so intimately connected to food. The task of teaching and understanding seemed insurmountable. I want to bridge my knowledge gap.
I come from a family that prioritizes good wine. For better or for worse, my family loves to have "wine nights" when we taste wines blindly. Guests bring two bottles, usually one good one mediocre, the labels are covered, and we muse on the quality, the varietal, the region without any true understanding. It's good fun, but it's a poor showing - and it's usually the men that muse. A large part of me is taking this course to know more than the men. I may not be able to play golf, but I'll be damned if they beat me at wine :)
In all seriousness, wine is important to my lifestyle. I derive great pleasure from trying new wines from interesting regions. A glass of wine while cooking a meal is my version of bliss. I feel lucky and excited to take a course that teaches me about a topic I already know I feel passionately about.
"Wine nights" are a great idea.
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