Taking it back to our roots…

by Michael Mohammadi

I started foodandwineblog.com in 2006 as a personal journey into cooking, wine, restaurants, beer and spirits, as well as travel.  It was fantastic.  At the time I was working part-time as a wine sales rep and had a chance to taste a lot of wine, mostly from Portugal.  This was a natural evolution from my passion for food and wine growing up and allowed me to see the professional side of the industry.

Shortly thereafter, I spent two years as a wine director for Sotto Sopra, a fantastic Italian restaurant in Baltimore, MD (one of my favorite restaurants I’ve had the pleasure of eating in).  As I was finishing my PhD and not allowed to have a second job, I was more of a consultant that just helped out with the wine list, wine ordering and wine events.  Some days before or after lab, and many weekends I would spend hours tasting dozens of wines, pairing wines with Chef Crouse, and spending some time with one of my best friends (Greg “Beerman” Bissonette) doing food, wine, and beer shows as we launched Foodandwineblog TV.  These were some of my fondest memories from grad school outside of the science and discovery that took place within the lab.

Near late 2009 my priorities changed and sadly, food and wine writing had taken a back seat to PhD writing, finding a job, and taking care of my huskies.  At that time foodandwineblog.com was maintained by Beerman with primary contributions coming from his many experiences in his kitchen and on the road in his travels.  Greg is an amazing cook, home brewer, and connesieur of many fine things in life.  With his help foodandwineblog.com flourished.

At its peak, we were getting over 1000 readers per day.

Skip forward to 2013.  Over 1000 posts, 100000 unique visitors and two PhDs later.  That’s where we are now.  Over the last year or so foodandwineblog has been off my radar, and with Greg being immersed in his post-doc and grants the website has been put on the back burner.  It’s what happens.  It’s life.  I get that.  But with my traveling over 100 days a year with work and visiting some awesome cities and countries, and Greg really getting into baking breads, cooking and homemade “just about anything”, we are excited to get back to some writing.

You’ll notice the format of F&WB has changed, but it’s still two best friends, sharing their journey into wine, food, cooking, beer, spirits, travel, hunting, and just about anything we can get our hands into.  We thank you, our readers and friends, for supporting us through the years.

Cheers to you all!