Yep. That sure was a collection of anecdotes and blog posts, loosely themed by category, but without a deeper narrative to underpin them. The underlying conceit seemed to be 'it happened, therefore it must be interesting.' This conceit is fundamentally flawed, and by 'flawed,' I mean 'incorrect.' The prose wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything beyond perfectly average. The chapters dealing with wine clearly showed Gaiser knows what he's talking about, but also tended on the dry side.

And on a much pettier note, the formatting of the digital version of this book was downright aggravating to read. A plain PDF where you just scroll infinitely down would have been vastly preferable.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.

As someone who is passionate about the Food & Beverage and Restaurant industries, this book was right up my street. Although I had not heard of Tim Gaiser before, his anecdotes about the industry, both in restaurants and later as a Master Sommelier, were for the most part interesting, fun and informative.

While I quite enjoyed this memoir, I am not sure who I would recommend it to as it suffers a little from a lack of clear identity. Some chapters are anecdotes from Gaiser's experiences in restaurants, his childhood and time as an MS, others a more informative guide to wine terminology, history and tasting. The chapters don't follow a linear time narrative or clear structure, rather feel like just a collection of the author's favorite memories and wine-related information he wants to pass on to the reader. There is also a degree of understanding one should have of wine before going in or be prepared to do some Googling, since the author frequently throws names of famous wines, vintages, vineyards, sommeliers, grapes and wine-regions out sometimes without much clarification or context.

I like wine, food and travel so this book ticks a lot of boxes. I know very little about sommeliers, but find their knowledge astonishing. This book gives som insight into how they achieve their phenomenal perspective.

I like the way it’s set out, with sections on restaurants, food and wine followed by a pit pourri of experiences. It’s very much a personal story, but it’s filled with passion about the restaurant and wine industry and I’ve enjoyed this opportunity to gain an interesting insight into an unknown world.

This book was very captivating. I highly recommend this book. I really enjoyed reading this book. This book is an easy read.

2.5 stars

I generally love stories told by those in the business of food and wine, but this wasn’t exactly that and it left me a bit cold. Tim Gaiser is a Master Sommelier (there are only about 180 of these in the world, but I’ve not heard of it before, and I use to be in the alcohol business, so I’m not sure it’s something that a lot of people really focus on (though I’m sure his skills are great.). The book contains some anecdotes of his time work in restaurants but it seems a lot of his career was maybe spent freelancing, so he doesn’t really get into the real day-to-day of the business which is what I find most fascinating.

He also includes musings about life in general and some supposedly funny anecdotes (wait til you hear the one about him burning his hand a dropping his family’s chicken on their kitchen floor. Or the one where he spills his morning coffee. Anyone? No? Yeah, I didn’t think so.). He also gives some inside baseball information of wine tasting which would be great if it came with…wine.

I did like his idea of a last meal, and I especially enjoyed his inclusion of a bacon course. There is probably a decent book in Gaiser’s head, but this wasn’t exactly disappointing.