What goes in early

If you know me at all, you know I am a big fan of Ina Garten. I love her recipes, her taste, her lifestyle. Lately, I’ve been enjoying her new podcast, Happy Hour with Ina Garten. In a recent episode, she interviewed chef Andy Baraghani, and they discussed the impact childhood experiences can have on adulthood. Ina said something along the lines of “what goes in early goes in deep,” and that really resonated with me.

I think I knew from a very early age that my life would involve gastronomy in some shape or form (although I certainly didn’t have the term gastronomy at my fingertips at the time). Many of my earliest memories involve my maternal grandparents. My younger brother had some health issues as a newborn, and as a result, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. Alex ended up being just fine, but we continued to spend chunks of our holidays and summer breaks with them throughout our childhoods. While they weren’t gourmet chefs—simple New England food reigned in their house—they did have a big garden each summer, and I’m sure some of my appreciation for eating locally and perusing farmers’ markets comes from that.

Moreso, I have very distinct memories of playing 'restaurant' with my grandpa. They had a plastic tea set (Cabbage Patch Kids because this was, after all, the late '80s and very early '90s). I would draw up paper menus and my grandfather would get down on the ground to have a seat at the coffee table so I could take his order, make up a pretend dish, and serve it to him.

Over the years, my interests turned to those typical of many girls of my generation: I wanted to be a marine biologist, an actress, and, for a while, a doctor. But the idea of becoming a chef and restaurateur kept coming back. I actually planned to attend culinary school after graduating from high school; I was accepted to Johnson & Wales and ready to go. It’s hard to say exactly why I changed my mind at the last minute, but I ended up enrolling in a traditional BA program and studying English and history.

Four years later, and I still didn't really know how I wanted to use that degree, so I went to graduate school. At the University of Vermont, I had the opportunity to take some courses revolving around food writing (I should mention that throughout all of this, I was devouring books by Anthony Bourdain and Ruth Reichl, among others) and I thought maybe that would be my path. During grad school and for a brief period after, I lived less than four hours away from my grandparents and would visit them once a month or so -- the most amount of time I got to spend with them both as an adult. It was during grad school that I met Danielle, who is still my best friend almost 20 years later, and much of our early friendship came from a shared love of dining out and exploring new restaurants.

After graduate school, I worked briefly for a local weekly newspaper (where I did get to write the restaurant reviews) before making a big change and moving to California to work in tech. This is when my life in wine truly began -- I started exploring all of the amazing restaurants that northern California has to offer, and wine just fell into place beside that. I visited local wine regions, started reading about wine, and a few years later, I had my first job in the wine industry. That job allowed me to take WSET 2, and the whole course of my career began to lead to where I am now.

That first job in wine was in Fredericksburg, TX, part of the Texas Hill Country. I suppose I am feeling especially nostalgic because, surprise (!), I have just moved back to Hill Country after almost 11 years away. I have taken on a new role down here that I am very excited about. I'm sure I'll get into all of the big changes in another post, but the cyclical nature of life can be so interesting sometimes.

But back to my main point. My grandfather never drank a drop of alcohol in his life, and he lived in the house that he and my grandmother built in 1950 for over 70 years -- and that house was just up the road from his childhood home. I, on the other hand, have built a career around alcohol, and have lived on every coast and border within the United States. He never graduated high school, and I have been a lifetime pursuing education. In so many ways, we couldn't be more different. And yet my grandpa never wavered in his support for me, and I can't help but think that those early days of restaurant pretend played a pivotal role in who I would become.

My grandmother died not too long after I moved to the west coast, so she has been gone for many years now. After she died, my mom became a bigger part of my grandfather's care, especially as he slowly went blind from macular degeneration. He started spending winters with her in Texas, and even made it to see my house in Minnesota a couple of times -- we remained close until his death a couple of years ago. He became quite ill while I was in the MW stage 2 seminar in February 2024, and died shortly thereafter. As I believe I've alluded to in previous posts, his passing, and the domino effect of other big changes in my family, rattled me quite a bit throughout the rest of that academic year and into the 2024-25 academic year, leading me to defer enrollment for the 2025-26 year. This was a wise move, even though I heavily debated it at the time. Now here we are at the beginning of a new academic year and I find myself once again an MW student (yes, I have decided to give it another go this year...the new job and a few other circumstances have changed that I think will be to my benefit as I once again embark on this journey).

This has turned into somewhat of a rambling post, but really, I wanted to take some time to reflect on how I got where I am now (because believe me, this is something I ask myself on a regular basis, sometimes in awe, sometimes in disbelief, haha). No matter what path I trace backwards, it always leads to the people that have supported me so much over the years, and my beloved grandpa is definitely at the center of that. I am so grateful for the time we had together -- cheers to him.

Cheers! Tasting in the Texas Hill Country.

Currently listening to: Happy Hour with Ina Garten

Currently drinking: lots of Italian wines as I prepare to take another stab at the Italian Wine Ambassador program in New York next week (this has become my white whale).