I grew up in small towns across the Midwest, in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri, and for my high school years I lived with my grandparents in Michigan. We had very traditional meals, with meat, potatoes, and some sort of a vegetable. On Sundays we would have a special meal, along with an eggs and bacon breakfast before church. My grandparents were 100% Finnish, and we had simple, delicious meals. I believe we had Pasties (meat & potatoes in a baked shell) at least every week. We didn't go out for dinners, and I can only remember eating out when we traveled somewhere. So, food wasn't a thing.
Joined the Marine Corps three days after graduating from High School. After boot camp and sea school, I was stationed in Italy. I had time when I was off duty to explore and enjoy the local countryside foods and wines. Loved the wine and foods together and I didn't know, understand or care why they worked so well - they were just exceptional.
I wasn't afraid of any of the foods that I was trying for the first time. I was open to trying anything. I figured if it was on the menu, then it must be something "everyone" ate. There was a seafood restaurant near the ship and I tried the Calamari and loved it. Fried with lemon squeezed on it, it was just fantastic. Next to the pier there was a pizza place, catering to the sailors and Marines, so they did some American style pizza as well. My favorite was a pan pizza that was cooked in a pan with olive oil, cheese and thinly sliced and at that point it was the best food in town. I didn't have to seek out a culinary experience, they were all around me, all the time.
Our ship traveled throughout the Mediterranean, visiting ports in Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and other countries. We were the command ship for the Sixth Fleet, so it seemed we stopped in every little port in the Mediterranean. However, it was always exciting to visit new ports and to be honest, eat something, anything that wasn't cooked on board the ship. Not that food onboard the ship was bad, but it was all about quantity not quality. Except for Jell-O, for some reason you only could get one scoop.
Each port we would visit there was usually time to explore the city; sometimes there were tours available to us, but many times we would just wander around.
Some of the most memorable meals and drinks came from little restaurants, without big signs or even menus.
Once in Naples, Italy Lance Corporal David Ertsgard and I found a restaurant in the city with a dirt floor and about four tables. It was an exceptional meal and experience.
One of our stops took us to Palma de Mallorca. The ship offered a tour of the island. It included a lunch stop at a winery, where they brought out pitchers of wine with our lunch. They were slow with lunch, but fast with the wines. I really don't remember what we had for lunch, but I remember how good the wine was. I do remember falling asleep on the bus for the rest of the tour.
We also participated in sporting events, such as rugby and football with the sailors from different duty stations. I enjoyed photography more than sports, so I went with my camera or to support them. On one outing in Italy, we had our bus stop at a winery on the way back. We had brought 5-gallon jugs of water along for the teams, someone took them up to the winery and had them filled with wine. We were drinking this amazing wine with those little foldable paper cups. The wine was so refreshing and fruity, but not sweet. A bus full of Marines and Sailors, the wine didn't last very long. I still remember thinking how good the wine was and never found out what it was.
One visit to Rome with some fellow Marines brought us into a small restaurant where the owner sat us down and proclaimed that everything was on the house for the Marines. We found out later that his father had fought in WWII with Marines and had told him all about how the Marines had saved so many people. He told us a couple of stories and brought out so much food and drink. At the end of the meal, he brought out a special bottle of Grappa and poured each of us a glass and toasted with us. It was a bit harsh and had a metallic flavor. He could tell it was strong for us and told us that this was 20-year-old Grappa di Barolo. He said we would like it better with something sweet, so he brought out a chocolate, hazelnut and amaretto dessert. It was such an amazing pairing! The flavors melted into each other and I remember to this day how much I loved the Grappa and the desserts together. It became one of my most favorite after dinner pairings whenever I was in Italy.
After I finished my tour of duty with the Marine Detachment on the USS Albany CG-10, I was transferred to Camp Pendleton in California. One of the things that you are always told is never volunteer for anything and never tell them you can type. I didn't take their advice when I arrived. Told to show up at a time and place to find out where I would be assigned. A benefit of my MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) as an 03-11, which is basic infantry, is that you can be assigned in many different jobs.
Arrived and waited for my name to be called and I heard someone say, "Does anyone know how to type?" I raised my hand, and they took me to a typewriter and timed me on my typing. I took typing in High School, there were all girls in the class and I thought it would be a great class to meet girls.
I didn't date anyone, but I did very well in the class and had great typing skills.
With my excellent typing skills, they assigned me to the Headquarters Company, Headquarters Battalion mailroom. What does this have to do with learning food and beverage? We had a lot of time off in this assignment. I would pick up the mail around 8 am, we would sort it, then mail call for all the companies. Which they picked up mail between 11 and 2. After mail call I would return the vehicle and be done for the day. The only time we worked a weekend would be if we had a duty apart from our assignment. We had a lot of time off.
As I mentioned before, I was into photography and found a modeling agency near the base that I was able to practice photographing models. I ended up dating a few of the girls and found that wine festivals were fun events to take a date. During that time, my focus wasn't on the wine, but I did manage to find some foods and wines that I reminisce about today. These festivals weren't comparable to the experience I had in Italy, France or Spain, but I was surprising how much I enjoyed the pairings of the foods and wines at these events.
After I left the Marines and returned to Michigan, I never really found the connection between the wine and food there. I enjoyed a nice wine with a dinner and occasionally would get a bottle to enjoy with friends, but I would say that I was more of a beer drinker at that point.
It wasn't until we moved to Juneau, Alaska almost 20 years later that I was exposed to beverage and food pairings while working for a beverage distributor. Let's just say that it took me some time to get familiar with the wide selection of beverages available in the Alaskan market.
My primary job was merchandising, but that also included taking care of the beer draught systems in town and around Southeast Alaska. Extremely fortunate as well to have met the owners of Alaskan Brewing Company, Geoff and Marcy Larson. The had tours of brewery and it helped me to develop a better understand how the brewing process worked, along with what made the beers different.
Most of my time was spent working on the draught systems around Southeast Alaska and selling kegs of beer. Maintaining the bar's draught systems gave me access to sampling a wide variety of beers. I was able to experience different beer styles and their different flavors.
One of the first things I learned was that once you finished cleaning a beer line, you rinsed the line and then sampled the beer to make sure there were not any line issues that could taint the beer. That quality control step made understanding the flavor profiles of each beer extremely important. I have been a firm believer in quality control ever since!
At that time, there we not many beer books that I could find, but my beer mentor, David Andrews passed along an extremely helpful technical manual that gave me a good base of knowledge. It was David that taught me about the different beers and shared much of the subtleties, along with a lot of hands-on experience.
During the summer in Juneau, Alaska, cruise ship passengers flooded the city and the bars - they were rocking all the time - so I was always on the run to keep kegs in stock and lines...
