Adrienne Smith

There are so many ways you can write about food! Looking for a way to describe the creative range, I stumbled upon this list of the International Association of Culinary Professionals' 2024 award finalists. https://lnkd.in/ecN4iS_9 For aspiring food writers, this list provides practical examples (cookbooks, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, articles ...) and writers/photographers/food stylists to follow. Oh, and those categories I was looking for? They narrow down from "Health & Wellness" or "Reference and Technical" to "Narrative Beverage Writing" and "Culinary Travel Writing With Recipes". #foodwriting #amwriting #cookbook

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Is #flexitarianism combined with digital media a key to shifting the food system in a more sustainable direction? Here are some interesting insights from Datassential's Huy Do and World Resources Institute's Edwina Hughes at The Culinary Institute of America's Menus of Change conference on consumer behavior, tactics to increase plant-forward menu options and the influence of digital media on consumer perceptions and expectations of plant-forward foods. #Plantforward #Healthandwellness #menutrends #foodservice #sustainability

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My latest for Grape and Wine magazine focuses on a recent survey of more than 9,000 wine club members from across the U.S.: • An income of $200,000 puts those individuals in the top 12% of U.S. household incomes. • The average wine club member is 59 years old. Though the majority are still working full time (54%), 40% are retired. • Reasons for leaving a wine club were varied, with 32% saying the expense was too high, while 27% said they switched to another club they liked better. https://lnkd.in/gGHs2Krx

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Craft breweries bloomed, and boomed, by providing drinkers with unique tastes and senses of place. Upstart breweries filled warehouses and former factories with gleaming brew kettles, proof that beer was made right here, by friendly neighborhood folks, not like those commodity lagers made elsewhere anonymously. As demand for craft beer spiked throughout the 2010s, breweries expanded to slake drinkers’ seemingly endless thirst for IPAs. “We all just ramped up production and bought tanks,” says Kieran Farrell, an owner and director of operations of Gun Hill Brewing, which opened in New York City in 2014. “In hindsight it was a mistake.” As demand for craft beer ebbs while the costs of doing business increase, breweries are overhauling their business models by offloading production equipment, closing locations, and sharing production equipment, ingredient orders, and even sales and marketing duties with fellow breweries. For VinePair, I take a deep look at how breweries are banding together to better safeguard their futures. #craftbeer #beerindustry #beer

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In today's Lodi Wine post (https://lnkd.in/gY5AGDsy) continuing our in-depth discussion of terroir: The differences between how commercial and terroir focused wines are made; something one local winery describes as a "liberation from longstanding notions" of how varietals such as old vine Zinfandel (and many other wine types) are supposed to taste like. #terroir #terroirwines #oldvines #zinfandel #zinfandeladvocates #lodiwine #lodiwinecountry #randycaparosophotography

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In today’s Substack chapter from Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants the subject is how sensory perception (or misperception) has always led to the surfeit of wine myths, past, present or seemingly perpetual. #restaurantwine #sommelier #sommelierlife #HospitalityManagement #WineMyths #paristasting

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On Tuesday I am giving a virtual talk for International Association of Culinary Professionals about writing. Specifically about what it was like for a pretty good food writer to come face to face with the fact that he was not a very good writer of long-form narrative. What did I do about that? How did I eventually finish a book? What were all the things I did wrong, and the one thing I did right? What is the difference between writing 1,000 words and writing 100,000 words? Why have words and turns of phrase always been so emotionally and psychically important to me? What even is a story? What is the difference between accuracy and truth? How do you develop a "linguistic palate" that guides you toward how to say what you are trying to express? I will try to answer these questions, or at least explore them, honestly, from my own experience. A registration link is in my bio. All are welcome. $20 for IACP members. $40 for nonmembers. I hope you will join me!

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Part 2 of our post on "Is appreciation of wine as varietals becoming passé?" addresses recent pain and controversy, especially in Napa Valley, wrought by slavish adherence to varietal standards at the expense emerging appreciation of terroir-related differentiations in newer wine regions. Visit https://lnkd.in/gp9yTRG3

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On today's Substack chapter from my book, Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants: There really is no excuse for not including descriptions of wines (especially less familiar selections!) on wine lists. #winelist #Sommelier #restaurantwine #hospitalitymanagement #hospitalityindustry #foodandbeveragemanagement

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In my latest SOMM Journal Bottom Line column, how to work with (or when necessary, against) distributors to build strong wine programs. Re https://lnkd.in/gptkmwe3 #winelist #restaurantwine #foodandbeverage #sommeliers #sommelierlife

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"While paying close attention to our natural surroundings generally invites self-reflection and transformation, “pairing” this attentiveness with wine appreciation makes the natural world a reference point through which a particular wine can be appreciated." Read more on the connection between wine and the natural world: ⬇ https://lnkd.in/eZMMnQEb

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For the October issue of WineBusiness Monthly, which is out now, I explored the state of the labor market in the wine industry and found that while some companies are quite hesitant to hire, others are expanding or working to fill turnover. You can read more about it in the link below:

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Tariffs are one of the biggest threats the U.S. wine market faces in 2025. Consumers could suddenly find their favorite imported wines all 10-20% more expensive. And domestic wineries could face higher costs on imported materials like bottles. While people are mobilizing to show that tariffs on wine hurt American businesses, I fear the second Trump Administration will go much bigger than the first: https://lnkd.in/g8HTUNKh

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Today’s chapter from Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants endeavors to break down the true longings of aficionados of natural style wines. #naturalwine #terroir #terroirwines #sommelier #sommelierlife #restaurantwine #sommjournal

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"Is orange wine controversial? Why? It seems like there’s a lack of specificity about it. Is it some kind of 'in between' category of wine?" Those were some of the questions right off the bat when I sat down recently with four friends and enthusiastic wine consumers, to taste through a lineup of orange wines. Could you relate? Today's fresh post on Forbes shows what happened next, with a few insights on how orange wine producers can strike that sweet spot between consumer awareness and curiosity. Please have a look. https://lnkd.in/eyAWZ3md

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Jon Fine is here! He’s a longtime journalist, cultural critic, and touring musician, and now he’s the editor in chief of The New Wine Review, an exciting publication that digs into the world of low-intervention wine. In this conversation we talk about what’s exciting in wine today and how The New Wine Review is changing the way wine is written about—the voice, the language, the attitude. I hope you enjoy this talk.

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Today’s Substack chapter from my upcoming book, Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants, has one message: A wine list does NOT have to be huge and all-encompassing to bring highest prestige and success to a restaurant. #winelist #sommjournal #sommelier #sommelierlife #hospitality #HospitalityManagement #foodandbeverageindustry

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Today’s chapter from Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants outlines a sure-fire way of composing menus for wines and working with chefs (or yourself), employing sensory components as guideposts. #restaurantwine #sommeliers #wineandfood #wineandfoodmatching #wineandfoodpairing #hospitalitymanagement

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