(Image by: Annaïck Le Mignon)

Editor’s Note: It is with great pleasure that I introduce Linda Violago, a on and off again Vancouverite and international traveling sommelier, whose whims have taken her around the globe to work in some of the world’s top restaurants, including stints at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago and Mugaritz in Spain.  For the benefit of Urban Diner readers, Linda will be sending us regular transmissions of her travels abroad. Enjoy!

~ PK

I have been travelling for a month with consulting gigs in London and the Maldives and some holiday time in Paris and Malmö and I find myself surrounded by boxes madly trying to pack and get things ready for the movers.^ One of the groups for my training session with Six Senses Soneva Fushi in the Maldives.

So far I’ve grazed through the first month of 2010 and already I feel fantastic.  It’s like a whole new life already!  London with the hustle and bustle and finally back to tasting lots of wine again – I am consulting on the wine list for a restaurant opening in Spring.  In the Maldives I did some training sessions and wine events with guests at two luxurious resorts.  And in Malmö, Sweden, I’ll be starting a new full-time gig.  I don’t think that I have had a more productive January!I spent about 31 months in Spain.  People laugh that I count in months, but given that I have worked that entire time with one employer to me it’s a relevant way of looking at how I have spent my time.  Sure, I have worked other places for longer, but in consecutive months.  Never.  In my life.  Never.  That says something about Mugaritz – the restaurant where I worked for that entire time.  It says many things.  What I will say about it was that it was a tremendous experience and I walk away STILL loving to work service.  And there’s nothing like picking yourself up and dropping into another place (and throwing in the element of another language just spices things up more) and adjusting and learning to live and work in that environment to really test one’s mettle.^ My personal Paris pastry binge.

It’s not new to me. Moving.  There are some that criticize it (which is not the same as saying that there are some who do not understand my way of being) but frankly, I am incapable of thinking otherwise.  I stayed another 12 months thinking it was “the right thing to do” as moving was always easy, it was the staying part that was always hard for me.  What I found is that I really DO need to listen to the gut and go when I need to go, because staying for the sake of staying really isn’t good for anyone.

In Chicago there was an employer that understood me so well, in spite of the fact that we rarely spoke about my comings and goings.  But he let me do it.  Four times.  I am forever grateful for that.

So I am getting ready to once again pack up my life, start anew and learn a new language. The packing bit and the “starting anew” bit always sucks… Being the newbie always sucks. But here I go again.

I invite you to join me as I continue to graze on this trail of life through meals and wine tastings in various countries.  On the one side, it is a way for me to scratch the surface and see into a new place, a new culture.  On the other hand, it’s also a way for me to see into myself and how I am growing and learning and tasting and changing.  With both, it’s making a trail on a path that I feel has no direction.  I am where I am simply because I’ve followed my whims.  There has been a bit of hard work and study along the way, but I do what I do because I want to.

I was thinking of occasionally flashing back and writing an odd story from the past (there are some good ones!) as well as checking in periodically to offer a snippet of where I am and what I’ve been up to.

~ Linda Violago