The Noble Pig is a place for me to write about food, develop recipes and share them with you.
Welcome to my site and my life.
About Me
I didn’t always love to cook. In fact, as a teen I paid little attention to anything going on in the family kitchen. It wasn’t until my early twenties that I suddenly took a real interest in creating food from scratch. I learned to cook by following recipes. Once I mastered certain techniques, I felt comfortable putting my own spin on things and creating meals specifically to my tastes. I think my first cookbook was 365 Ways to Cook Chicken, remember that one?
About the same time I was learning to cook, I also caught the wine bug after taking many trips to the Napa Valley in Northern California. Needless to say I became fascinated with the science of winemaking. I was learning so much about wine on these trips and it’s all I thought about while back at home in Southern California. At that point in my life, winemaking seemed like an impossible dream, but one I thought about often.
Fast forward many years and two kids later, an opportunity arose for me to return to the classroom, this time studying Viticulture & Enology at the University of California, Davis. I honestly could not believe I was going to attend this program and delve into the nitty-gritty of making wine and growing grapes. Not a bad gig when it comes to going back to college.
At the same time I was planting my vineyard in the Pacific Northwest, I was also discovering food recipes on the web, (this was way before social media existed in the sense we know it today).
I decided I also wanted a food website where I could share my creativity in the kitchen to get me through the long period of time it takes to grow grapes and make wine. What I never imagined was that this website would take off and grow to the epic proportions it has today. It has been a dream.
The fact that this site has become its own self-supporting business, with many amazing team members, still amazes and humbles me. It was only supposed to be a hobby. I was/am very lucky how it has all turned out.
This irresistible outlet of writing about food balances my creative side of thinking. For me, it’s the best of both worlds. With my extensive sensory training from my days in enology school, I have a unique sense of what flavors come together well. This helps so much in the kitchen when creating something innovative and new is on the line.
I have been humbled by having my writing and recipes featured in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Huffington Post and all kinds of other wonderful publications. Working with brands, writing on their sites and developing recipes for their products has also been especially rewarding. Have I mentioned all the fun freelance projects I get to work on behind the scenes? AND, I get to do this in one of the most beautiful, picturesque parts of wine country, while I make and grow wine.
What a journey.
