Lesson 26   

How to Get Started

Becoming more familiar with the restaurant environment is really the best way of knowing whether or not you really want to pursue a career as a sommelier. Take any job you can get, including in the back of the house (the kitchen) because your experience will come in handy no matter what. Start as a bartender, cocktail server, busser, banquet server, server, prep cook, you name it.

Tip

I had visions of becoming a chef until I shucked oysters for three weeks with a bunch of French men in the kitchen of Manhattan’s chic Le Cirque Restaurant. That cured me.