Contributors
Wine & Food Travel is supported by our fans, friends and fellow writers. Our source of content comes from people like you who are interested in sharing tips and information. If you are interested in joining our team thinking about getting involved, visit our Get Involved page or email Kim @ wineandfoodtravel.com
WAFT Team Writers & Contributors:
Sonya Lee Since a child, Sonya has been traveling from the corners of Canada to the far east Asia. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, she led a normal family life with her brother, mother and dad. A well received job opportunity in Hong Kong for her father put the compass in action from a young age.
Sonya loves good food, and I mean GOOD simple food. She loves an occasional drink, be merry and enjoy the good times. Having recently healed herself from a large ruptured cyst, her favorite foods include fresh carrot juice, grilled vegetables, sauteed portabello mushrooms and truffle french fries. Her philosophy? Healthy food makes a healthy body. Read more on the Editor page.
When she's not fretting over WAFT, she runs a small design agency called mowie media and shares the good times with her dog, Monster and 3 cats Sabi, Kaeli & Misty.
Catherine Flournoy Having served in the hospitality industry before she had her driver's license, Catherine's kitchen adventures began at the age of four when baking was learned at her grandmother's knee. Being born on her family's farm in rural Taiwan seemed to have destined her for a delicious life. Several careers later, the culmination of her diverse personal and professional life eventually dovetailed back into the culinary arts. Catherine's philosophy is this: Food is Service. What's fantastic about this vital sustenance is that food is a deliciously insightful social commentary on any given place. Food is art created from nature's palette, and when plated is like great architecture of minuscule proportions. Catherine celebrates the variations in food derived from a history rich in everyday and exotic ingredients, invaluable nutrients and that are exciting with flavors and methods from continent to continent, era to era. Food is an offering of love - from the cultivation process, preparation and right down to its consumption. Food is culture in edible form – how else does one absorb the diversity of our world in literally just one bite? Catherine believes in balance, when she’s not exploring food and food science she is an avid dancer and music lover. Catherine is currently apprenticing to become a pastry chef.
Myla Ariaga Five years ago, Myla left her comfort zone to work as an ESL teacher in China. Sure, she enjoyed staying at “Hotel Mama” while doing a secure and hassle-less job in the garment industry but she always felt the need to “go out” and explore the world so at 23, that’s exactly what she did. During her three years stint in China, most of her weekends and holidays were spent visiting places from the northeastern part of China down to Southeast Asia. As her horizon stretches further, her thirst for traveling intensifies. Right now, she’s living in Austria with her husband who, by the way, also shares her passion for traveling. Life may get in the way sometimes but she and her husband see to it that they get to visit new places and try out new things. When she’s not busy with her day job and she's not on a trip somewhere, Myla likes to cultivate her creative side with photography and writing. Her other interests include reading, scrapbooking, and cooking.
Kim Stakal Kim is a food writer, recipe developer, and culinary consultant with a delicious habit of sticking too many fingers in too many pots. As a graduate of New York City’s Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Arts, she has created specialty food products, conducted recipe development for celebrity clients, and written and edited for a number of cookbooks and food websites. In her spare minutes, Kim can be found listening to soul music, roaming the streets and beaches of Los Angeles, and of course, searching for the next good eats. Visit Kim’s website for information on her services and to view her regular blog @ www.the-green-gourmet.com.
Johanna Smith Johanna is an avid foodie and loves to try new types of cuisines and wines. She is an amateur cook and loves to cook for her nearest and dearest. She believes in simple home cooked foods made from simple ingredients from the earth (preferably from her own backyard). She is heavily influenced by her Chinese background in her cuisine and you will never see her pantry without soy sauce, sesame oil and chili paste.
James Lawrence James Lawrence is a self confessed wine obsessive, passionate about discovering and promoting the lesser known wines and wine regions of the world. He is a frequent contributor to decanter.com and runs an interactive, community led wine forum, thewineremedy.com
In 2004, he went to study in Bilbao, Northern Spain. Luckily for him, the famous wine region of Rioja was just over an hour away by car. He began to spend a great deal of time there, visiting the wineries in Rioja and speaking to local wine makers. Their passion for the subject and their pride in the wines was infectious. He began to realise what an amazing subject wine is and how wide and complex the world of wine could be. Subsequently James moved into wine retail while finishing his degree, and was hooked.
James also enjoys food and travel writing - he lives for Italian and Thai cuisine!
Nadine Nettmann Nadine has a taste for travel, adventure, delicious food and a great glass of wine. A foodie from a young age, she loves trying meals from around the world and does her best to travel and dine on a budget. Originally from Los Angeles, Nadine and her husband stored 95% of their belongings and moved to Maui with two suitcases in 2006. She is an avid cook and while she loves living on the island, she will admit she misses some of her kitchen appliances in storage. When she’s not baking a cake or out on the water, she can be found at her computer working on her novel.
Heidi Anderson Heidi is a professional photographer & writer, eater & drinker in Honolulu, Hawaii. After attending The Academy of Art in San Francisco, she opened a children's photography studio in Los Gatos, CA, but eventually the pull of the Islands brought her back to Hawaii to open a studio there. She has become a renowned children's photographer & has since cultivated her food lust by photographing food for local restaurants, as well as collaborating on a Cuban cookbook project where she is the photographer, writer & recipe tester. With her motto being: Will Work For Food, she also documents her pursuit to "eat, drink & be merry" on her food blog, Swigs & Grinds. You can find her at www.swigsandgrinds.blogspot.com &
www.keikiphoto.com
Guest Contributor WAFT's guest contributors include expert and hobby bloggers and writers from different parts of the world. They are regular persons who are happy to be able to simply share their experiences, stories, and tips about the three things we, as WAFT's fans, all share interest in--wine, food and travel.
Jane Beckman Jane Beckman is a reformed workaholic who has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil. Her passions are food, wine, cooking, travel, and history, in no particular order. In fact, they tend to feed into each other. She might be found cooking over a fire at a historic adobe one weekend, eating crabcakes at a 19th century hotel in downtown Gettysburg on another, or getting lost on a back road, only to find an amazing park or hidden gem of a winery.
Her family's love of exploring back roads has always influenced her, as did her father's love of exotic foods. Living in Hawaii at the age of 5, she acquired a taste for poke, pickled octopus, and poi. Japan hooked her on mochi and udon noodles, as well as Japanese kimono. When she was growing up on the Central Coast of California, her parents taught her how to be a "resident tourist" and find things even the locals didn't know about. She continues in that tradition, keeping an eye out for the unique and unexpected.
