Welcome to my Table.

**Holding a bottle of Fontanasanta Manzoni Bianco from one of my favorite Italian wine producers, Elisabetta Foradori.**

Hello fellow food, wine, and travel lovers. Thank you for taking the time to read by blog. I founded The Wine Chef in 2016 as a way to express my love, passion, and knowledge for great food, wine and spirits. I hope it inspires you to create your own mind-blowing meals, whether you’re in your own kitchen or dining out at a restaurant.

Way back when, I was a Bates College graduate living the life in New York City and working in the business world, mostly in publishing. I finally landed what I thought was the perfect job in ad sales at the New York Times. But every Wednesday, instead of scouring the paper for ideas to increase advertising space, I would find myself reading and clipping the recipes from the food section. I would call my best friend (no texting back then!) and say, "Did you see such and such recipe? Doesn't that look so good?!" I felt more excited about those recipes than I did about the ad space I was selling.

The funny thing is, I didn't know how to cook! Despite my culinary inexperience, I decided that my calling was probably food-related, so I quit my job and enrolled in the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center). After graduating, I worked at some of New York City's top restaurants with famous chefs like Tom Colicchio and Terrence Brennan. I also had gigs in catering, food styling, and magazine recipe development.

My love of well-crafted food naturally spilled over into a passion for wine and spirits, and in 2012 I joined Manhattan’s famous Park Avenue wine shop, Sherry-Lehmann, as a sales associate. While there, I tasted some of the finest wines and spirits of the world, and met the people who make and market them. When my focus shifted to writing about wine, I joined Grape Collective as a staff writer, assisting with sales at the Upper West Side shop.

Please join me on a food and wine adventure and feel free to email me with comments and questions: lisa@thewinechef.com.