Most people who finished their studies at the hotel school start their careers in regular restaurants (nothing wrong about that of course), the following sommelier we're about to present must have thought 'the sky is the limit' and immediately started working for a 3 Michelin star awarded restaurant and has worked at the same level ever since. Please meet Italo-Swiss top sommelier Fabio Masi After his studies at the Milan Hospitality school, Fabio set sail towards his first job as commis-sommlier at the 3 Michelin star awarded restaurant The Waterside inn in Berkshire at that time run by the famous Roux Brothers (now run by Alain Roux). If you start at the top, you might as well continue th

Our next top sommelier is a italo-kiwi or whatever they would call a Italian in New-Zealand :-) Born and raised in Umbria, Andrea started his working career, after graduating at the I.P.S.I.A. Cavour Marconi High School, at the Umbrian luxury resort Borgobrufa. Although at that time as a regular waiter (chef de rang actually), but soon enough Andrea noticed be want more and aimed higher. He want to climb up the ladder and explore the world, with as first stop the 3 Michelin awarded restaurant Rosa Alpina in Süd-Tirol. He continued his journey with his first actual job as a sommelier at Welsh restaurant Ynyshir Hall* ,Grand Hotel a Villa Feltrinelli**, The Fat Duck *** to name a few. A job po

For the next sommelier we are taking you across the Atlantic Ocean to sunny Mexico, please meet Steve Ayon. After obtaining his bachelor degree in gastronomy he started his career in Mexico-city in divers top luxury HoReCa businesses as sommelier or head-sommelier like hotel Presidente Intercontinental, Palacio de Hierro to eventually spread his wings outside of Mexico at the Relais & Chateaux from the Lapostolle winery in Chile. Steve has also been a busy bee outside of his work environment, as in 2013 he won the Best Junior Sommelier of Mexico competition and in 2017 he won the “regular” Best Sommelier of Mexico contest. Winnings that allowed him to represent Mexico in divers Internationa

Today we take you to Serbia to introduce to you 2 time Best Sommelier of Serbia, 2018 Best Sommelier of Balkan and semi-finalist of the 2019 Best Sommelier of the World contest (top 20) Vuk Vuletic!! Not too shabby :-) After his studies of hotel management at the at the University of Novi Sad Vuk set the first step in his career as sommelier at the steak and winebar at Belgrade. It might have only been the first step, but it was definitely an important one as Vuk was part of the team who opened up the restaurant. As it was the restaurant opening, Vuk was able to do the setup of the wine list and wine cellar with over 150 references, mostly red as it was a steak restaurant. So you could say

For the next sommelier interview we are taking you to Bratislava Slovak Republic, please meet Gabriel Kollár Gabriel followed his classical formation at the Hospitality Management Institute in Prague, where after he started to work as sommelier for a few local restaurants and wine trading companies. But Gabriel wanted something bigger, so he set sail towards London where he was offered a position as sommelier at one of THE most iconic restaurants in London the Savoy Grill. Followed by position as head sommelier at top level London restaurants like Corrigan’s Mayfair and Heddon street kitchen. Seeing his professional career, it will not surprise when I tell you that Gabriel didn't win the na

Please meet Latvian top sommelier Kaspars Reitups. A sommelier that actually wasn’t supposed to be working in HoReCa as he studied Insurance Risk calculation :-) we keep getting surprised by the amount of people who via a sometimes big detour eventually did end-up working in HoReCa and becoming sommelier or maybe rather finding themselves a passion they initially though that wasn’t there. The Key-word is determination, as with that you can achieve everything!! The reason why Kaspars decided to change, was because during his studies he noticed that the job he would eventually be doing seemed like a job with always the same routine... doing the same thing over and over, day in day out. The t

Imagine, the day before the ASI Best Sommelier of the World contest you get called to say that you have to fall in for the 1st candidate of your country as he got sick. Sounds like a crazy experience and something you don’t want happening!? Well that’s exactly what happened with the next sommelier we are presenting to you, Richelle van Gemert. Last year (2019) she had to sub for Lendl Mijnhijmer who got sick and had to cross the torch over to Richelle, who from her side jumped on the first train towards Antwerp. She ended-up amongst the 20 best (out of 66) which an amazing result for having to perform this last minute… hats off for that!! Richelle is classically trained at the King Willem I