TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10th
A WEBINAR (link to recording) ; Moderated by the team at Vinequity, a Toronto based not-for-profit that serves as a directory for Black, Indigenous and People of Colours, LGTBQ+ in an effort to lend more visibility and promotion to students and professionals in wine at all levels in Canada. They will also be offering a scholarship and mentorship program in the new year to selected candidates.
The webinar was hosted by one, of the 8 co-founders of Vinequity, Nabila Rawji and included panelists such as myself and 4 others. Andrea Backstrom of A+M Consulting. Shiraz Mottiar the head winemaker at Malivoire Winery in Niagara. José Luis Fernandez who is currently a CMS-A Masters Candidate and Elsa Macdonald, a Master of Wine.
VinEquity instaPhoto and promotion. Nov 2020
it was an engaging hour of conversation where we each shared a glimpse of our personal stories of how we arrived at this moment in time. My words/story is shared below:
This is one of the few moments where I, with pleasure, will share and explain the classic question ‘Where are you from? No really where are you from?’ and ‘How did you learn wine?’
I am Canadian, my parents are from Barbados. I was born in Mississauga.
We moved to Guelph, when I was high school aged.
I grew up ‘middle class’ my parents worked hard, with the expectation I would go the college route, job, family – sekkle down .
I was one of 4 black kids in my high school. I had my typical ‘small town’ experience around being black, nothing physical – all microaggression, verbal… psychological. I learned to navigate, assimilate, eventually ‘code-switch’.
I fell in love with the French Language after a March Break School Trip to Paris and the South of France and I aspired to be an architect.
I was accepted early to UofT, on the basis I would play basketball, I didn’t have the grades for Architecture [that is another story] but…
1999 - I happily graduated with a French Language and Literature Degree.
I found a job in Customer Service at an International Investment Company, the intention to pursue a ‘Securities Route’ with my language skills in hand. I learned how to communicate in a ‘Sorry to Bother You’ ‘How can I help you!’- kind of way. Though from my cubicle, I realized this world was not for me.
The events of 9/11 came – resulting in lay-offs, I was offered a decent severance package, then in 2003 I was off to Paris on a ‘young persons-working’ Visa. Following a dream.
I was 27years old- I was curious and open, I had my local markets mapped out, with my produce guy from Tunisia, to my Cheese Monger from the Jura and a circle of friends from all corners of the world. I played soccer in a men’s league, I was a casual DJ at a tiny lounge, I bartended and served, I was a photographer’s assistant – and I cooked and dined with friends when possible.
LET’S TAKE A MOMENT TO REFLECT
We assimilate into the idea that ‘the standard of hospitality is based on European technique and notions of quality’ – but I observed that we all exercise the sharing of food and drink in the same way…ingredients and customs are only different in nuance and ratio. One is not better than the other. I do what I do in a ‘West-Indian’ way.
BACK TO THE STORY
2005, back in Toronto, via an internet search I discovered the term: Sommelier – an expert of wine and beverages. I felt this was a direction I could explore.
Where to study: George Brown College / CAPS – Canadian Association of Professional Sommelier.
I spent the summer reading about wine.
I contacted the school, got in by the skin of my teeth on an evaluation test and a late acceptance.
LISTEN
I had no family history in wine. I never worked fine dining.
At this point, I worked at an Italian Eatery, that only served 6 wines BTG and was only open for lunch. I learned to love Italian wines during my study as I worked side by side with the wines. I was lucky.
I didn’t have a tasting group to participate as the majority of my classmates were fine dining people. Wine class for them was in addition to what they already had, not a path of exploration. And I was the only black person in class! Kind of like first year French, when you realize all your classmates have French Speaking Parents and the reason they are here is for ‘an easy’ grade!
I didn’t have a mentor to guide me. I knew more about wine than my service manager.
I would get my local LCBO agent to brown bag ‘testable’ wines, so I could taste them at home by myself’
I was curious, I would ask questions. I would go over to see Jamie Drummond at the Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar and taste flights of wine blind, after my service or as a ‘night’ out.
I graduated, I passed, I felt slightly out of place. I wasn’t the best student…
but look at me now.
I did notice that my ‘fine dining’ peers took a lot for granted because of their positions and bias.
I was not blinded by Burgundy or Bordeaux being the best wines of the world.
I saw how they played the game. I would play it slightly different. Growing up in Guelph, travelling alone to France. I was not afraid of ‘their’ world – or those who identified or acted with what I recognize as ‘white privilege’.
I was confident, I had nothing to lose. That was the difference, that was my edge.
I was open to the world. I endeavoured to chart my own path!
NOTE: in all my lectures, seminars, travels, - I have been 95% of the time – the only black person in the audience, in the vineyards, and on that ‘wine dinner’ table. Think about how that might feel AND I have never had an instructor who looked like me.
Continuing…
Sommeliers – Yes was becoming a thing, there were a few gatekeepers, but I carried on.
I helped open and manage a few restaurants. I presented wines off the beaten path such as Portugal, Greece, Italy, South-France for example.
Finally opening my own wine bar in 2012…I tried my best, learned, made many mistakes and left the business…
I didn’t have the right mentorship or partnerships…was it about colour or personalities, I think both.
Meanwhile, I felt I hadn’t cut my teeth in ‘real’ fine dining or with a ‘big’ program. I got a part time job at big restaurant – with a large F&B Program. I soon after took over the wine program and con-currently started to travel and work with ‘wines’ I had studied for.
I created my website and began posting pictures and stories from trips.
This restaurant began hosting the Court of Masters - Introductory and Certified courses. I took the courses, passed, did horrible on service. I was a mess.
Then in late 2015 - A new Fine Dining Tasting menu restaurant had just opened, there was a need for a ‘head sommelier’ I was contacted by associates who managed and worked there and was convinced to join their team.
So, 5 years later, Directing 3 wine programs from fine dining to casual. Many trips and working with some talented and interesting people. I was recognized by Canadas 100Best Restaurants as the top sommelier in 2019. I call it my Obama moment. LIKE REALLY THE FIRST TIME YOU EVER SAW A BLACK FACE UP IN THAT MAGAZINE .
I started wine education when I was 30…I am now 44. I have a family, a partner, two girls 10 and 7. The journey was not without its challenges.
ON THE SHORES OF LAKE ONTARIO, NOVEMBER 2019.
IN THE END THIS IS NOT A WOE IS ME MOMENT.
To sum it all up and to address a big part of why I am here with you today is that I had my awakenings only in the last 3-4 years. Like ‘woke’ feelings. Reading James Baldwin and reading Ta-Nehisi Coates…Retrospectively I started to open my eyes to the reasons I had many unnecessary and necessary challenges, that I eventually overcame…
1. If I was ‘white’ or had the right guidance would I be an architect today?
2. Had I not gone to France, I would not have been questioned on my identity. I was just me. Simple. But everyone else wanted to know if I was American, British, French West Indian, certainly not French African…my French accent was ‘too perfect’. I was Canadian. To this day I still have to explain this.
3. I have the knowledge but not the colour? If I got the jobs in fine dining that I applied for during and after my studies, and were I a different hue, would I be further down the road, earlier, with finances and stature and maybe in the Court of Masters or hosting Wine Seminars? – I did placements, and staged, but I found them lacking in care and respect and it seemed mostly smoke and mirrors. I was also mature and had less tolerance ‘for working from the bottom up’.
4. Had I looked the part would I have been invited to those tasting groups, even when I repeatedly asked…I realized I was not a ‘bird of a feather’
5. At that ‘big’ restaurant with a nicely funded F&B program, would I have stayed if they worked with me to commit to my program of proposals and salary request, instead of opting to pay me on a consulting/invoice month to month…no commitment to me…meant no commitment to them when the time came.
6. I still face challenges to today. I still get the ‘where are you from’, where did you study, you are so articulate, you’re so well dressed and then there are the moments at tasting and when you ask a question of certain ‘whine’ people there is a disregard and cold shoulder, because I don’t look the part.
I am here, at the ‘highest level’ (whatever that is supposed to mean) and I still feel there is more to do and more to learn. I have since surrounded myself with good people, my close circle is filled with people who see me for me, and allow me to be me…so that I can approach my wine study and work with ‘me’ in mind and make decisions with ‘me’ in mind… Prior to this I admit I looked for approval from my peers, mainly white! I compromised my behaviour and decision making to a certain extent.
But no longer.
I have always used wine as a lens through which I examine the world this ‘very very small’ slice of the world. In the grand scheme of things
it is the people and stories of the land, and how it can make you feel that is of the greatest human interest.
We all taste, we all have questions, we all have dreams!