In restaurants it are always the chefs that are the ‘stars’ and get all the attention, but there are so many more people in a restaurant that try their best to make your evening unforgettable… like the sommeliers for example! This is why I try to put the sommeliers in the spotlight for once! So far we’ve already put over 70 sommeliers in the spotlight and there are many more to come :-) The next sommelier I want to introduce to you (if you didn’t know him yet) is Dutch top sommelier Jan-Willem van der Hek. Just like I mentioned in my previous interview with Norwegian top sommelier Liora Levi, some things in life happen by ‘accident’. In Liora’s case it was during a meal at a steak house, in
Today I wish to put another female sommelier in the spotlight! I can’t say it enough, but it is very nice to see that more and more women are finding their way to this wonderful profession, especially as it seems they are better tasters :-) Please meet Norwegian top sommelier Liora Levi aka Best Sommelier of Norway in 2013 and Best Nordic Sommelier in 2012. Some things in life happen by ‘accident’, for Liora this ‘accident’ happened during a meal at a steakhouse :-) as it was during this meal she got interested in wines… so much that it resulted in her working 9 years at the steakhouse. Her passion only grew and graduated in 2010 at the Norsk Sommelier Utdanning as best taster and best st
The first sommelier I want to put in the spotlight in the second series of 'time to put the sommeliers in the spotlight' is Polish Master Sommelier Piotr Pietras. For people following international sommelier contests this name will seem familiar as not only did Piotr win the title of 'Best Sommelier of Poland' 2 times (2015 & 2016), he is also became 2nd in the 'ASI Best Sommelier of Europe' contest a few months ago in Vienna (to only name a few contests and achievments). It was in 2011, after getting his Bachelor in Hotel Management at the Poznańska Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu, he started his professional carreer at the Poznan Sheraton hotel where he intially worked as waiter and eventually as s
