Sommelier’s view of succeeding in the toxic world of fine dining

 

When Sommelier Victoria James (13) spilled a drop of wine on the tablecloth of a Michelin –starred restaurant in New York, she was publicly punished and  warned her next mistake  would cost her, her job. From then on her hands would tremble every time she poured.

 

Aged nineteen, Victoria was serving sugary Cosmopolitans in a restaurant off Broadway. Aged 21, obsessive waitress Victoria was named the US’s youngest sommelier, working in Michelin-starred restaurants, serving the finest wines to compliment spectacular foods.

 

Wine Girl is an account of  traumatic childhood abuse that developed into professional abuse  as she rose through the world of professional wine, still too young to legally drink in America. The Victoria was “highbrow  servant”, in the country.

She learned to handle, manage and reveals behind the scenes at the world of  high dining, but she after hitting rock-bottom found her way back to the industry she adores.

 

James  dispels  the myth of “good cheap wine”. Mass producers use chemicals  and flavouring to mask  rotten and damaged grapes bottling with little wine and plenty of MOG ( matter other than wine).

Basic wines such as prosecco, Pinot Grigio, California Cabernet, Sancerre are all marked way the hell up by some, but exclusive wines suchas “cru beau “ ,sherry and  Champagne are not on the top.

 

Wine Girl’s story is edged with the darkness of her experience in hospitality, and highlight her raw passion for her profession.

Wine Girl refers to a humiliating branding  James received doing 100-hour weeks in New York restaurants where she was constantly groped by customers and colleagues. She was raped several times, first  as a young teenager by a customer, and later by a former boss in the restaurants wine cellar.

 

Women in restaurants are expected to take what came their way, and not make a scene  according to James who is a partner and beverage director at the Korean Stake House, Cote in New York which was awarded Michelin Star in 2018.

 

James highlights the precarious life on the knife-edge of survival in the restaurant industry.

Sommeliers train for years to identify the vintages , grapes, countries, region and sub-regions of wine.

 

Wine Girl by Victoria `James, Ecco $26.99/Fleet £16.99, 336 pages.