It’s a remarkable thing, finding your life’s passion. There’s nothing better than knowing exactly what you were meant to do.

It was 1970, I was a 21-year-old hippy living in Tucson, Arizona, and I got a job as a dishwasher in a communal vegetarian restaurant for 90 cents an hour. One day, the cook didn’t show so my hippy friends nominated me to take over the kitchen. Chaos led to Nirvana. I felt like I had come home – but it was no home I’d ever known before.

My passion for food grew until I enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in 1975. I was already skilled as a vegetarian cook – at CIA, I learned to cook with “real” food: foie gras, sweetbreads, veal cheeks, fresh skate wing and Alaskan halibut.

There, I learned from the best chefs: Richard Czak, a master of the classics. Bruno Elmer, who cooked for Egyptian royalty. Fritz Sonnenschmidt, an expert sausage-maker.

And John Novi, my mentor, my friend, and the guy who set me free in the kitchen. I learned from John that a dedicated chef works and works until he gets it right.

In my career, I’ve cooked with the Culinary Olympic Team, prepared dinner for former Vice President Al Gore, and worked alongside great chefs like Pete Peterson, Emeril Lagasse, and Takashi Yagahashi. I’ve made dinner at top wineries in America, France, and Italy. I prepared a meal at the James Beard House in New York, the culinary great’s former residence-turned-showplace for America’s best food.

I’ve dined in great restaurants and owned some, too. And yet my hunger grows.

We’ve always been a traveling family and my kids share my love of food. We learn the places we go by sampling local cuisine. Yellowtail snapper in Florida. Crispy first-of-the-season artichokes, fried and pressed to look like sunflowers, in Rome. Bouillabaisse in Nice. If it’s fresh and what the locals eat, I want a taste.

My friends notice that before I take a bite, I breathe in the scent of whatever is on my plate. That’s how I make a permanent memory of taste.

I can still remember my first Tartufo Bianco – its heady scent musty like a mushroom. My first seared foie gras was like melting velvet. My first fresh oyster, a drop of the sea: briny, cool, and salty.

Memory, knowledge, taste, and supreme pleasure allow me to create a cuisine based on good ingredients, supported by a tender all-encompassing love for the wholesome products of the earth.

Share your love of food with me here…Chef Rick Halberg

“I like to drink wine more than I used to – anyway, I’m drinking more.”
-Vito Corleone in The Godfather

Wine consumption in the United States surpassed that of beer and liquor for the first time in 2006. America is on track to become the top wine-consuming country in the world within a few years, remarkable considering how wine is an integral part of other cultures but still rather new to ours.

John Maynard Keynes is said to have declared on his deathbed, “My only regret is that I did not drink more Champagne.” I won’t need to make a similar pronouncement.

I’m Eric Novak, wine buyer for Hiller’s Markets. I have bought, sold, written about, served, and consumed wine for more than thirty years and if I’ve learned anything at all, it’s that wine does improve with age. For the more I age, the better I like it and the more it improves my attitude.

My wine education began in Northern California in the 1970s, when I worked in upscale San Francisco eateries alongside wine-savvy restaurateurs. There, I learned about French and Italian wines, while assiduously researching California wines just when they were beginning to receive recognition.

By the time I had to build my first wine list as a restaurant owner, I was convinced I knew what I was doing. (I didn’t.) I began to explore my growing passion for wine through writing and literature (in my former life, I studied literature and linguistics at Dartmouth College, San Francisco State University and Harvard). Amassing hands-on research is as much fun as kicking back with a good vintage.

Through Jim Hiller’s Wine Club, I introduce eager folks to unusual wines of remarkable value. There are more great wines on the market at every price point right now than ever before. Unfortunately, there’s also more forgettable wine. The fun of this business lies within searching for, and discovering, the gems.

For cork dorks and novices alike, few things are quite as gratifying as paying $10 for a wine that tastes as if it should cost more. It’s not so much the money saved; it’s the challenge of the hunt and the joy of the discovery.

Let me end this first post with a few great summer sipping suggestions:

* CARe Rosé, La Vieille Ferme Rosé, or Goats Do Roam Pink. American pink wines have a deservedly bad reputation, but Europeans have long known the pleasure of dry rosé to accompany light summer fare. The CARe is from Spain, the Vieille Ferme from southern France, and the Goat from South Africa. Each of these wines is clean, refreshing, nicely balanced and perfect served ice cold on the deck.

* Leelanau Cellars Tall Ship Chardonnay. Michigan wines are more than worth a taste! With excellent quality that’s constantly improving, Michigan wines have great value. This popular Chardonnay from northern Michigan is flavorful and aromatic with a subtle oak frame, good balance and firm acidity. Try it with simple grilled fish.

* Canella Bellini or Canella Rossini. The signature drink at Harry’s Bar in Venice and lauded by Ernest Hemingway, the classic Bellini is made from high quality Prosecco, the nectar and pulp of Italian white peaches, and a few drops of wild raspberry juice. Canella Bellini beautifully balances scented fruit, soft texture and zesty acidity, making it an ideal aperitif, or ‘anytime’ summer refreshment. The Canella Rossini, made with strawberry pulp, has a lovely texture and zesty acidity.

Eric Novak
Hiller’s Wine Buyer & Wine Club Director