What is life without passion and curiosity? Sometimes they are the only things that keep you going. For many years I dreamed about enrolling in cooking school. I visited the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York. I stopped by the bookstore and left with a copy of Feasts from Hawaii by Roy Yamaguchi. That's as close as I ever came to being a chef. Some years later, I attend a book signing with John Ash at Gary's Wine & Marketplace in Madison, New Jersey. We talk about his life's work as the culinary director at Fetzer Vineyards. This chance meeting is one reason I begin to work in the travel industry. This opens doors to a new career in wine retail. In 2002, I begin writing a monthly wine column for a New Jersey newspaper company. This book is about food and wine and the working people who played a leading role in my destiny.