A woman with fair skin and light red hair looks solemly at a wine glass as she pours liquid into it. A man with dark hair watches in the background.

Expert gastronomes

People are craving professional-level gastronomy, turning to the best to learn for themselves.

Author: Carla Calandra

During the pandemic, people took the time to explore, experiment with, and understand the food they ate. Now, aspiring gastronomists are liquidating their knowledge, expanding on their understanding of wines and teas in nuanced, extraordinary ways.

Guests at the Genesis House Restaurant in Manhattan have an opportunity to learn from a Korean tea master. On Saturdays and Sundays at 1 pm, guests can learn the etiquette of darye, the Korean tea ceremony, paired with a sampling of teas and snacks. Ashley Lim, the tea master in residence, hosts the sessions at the restaurant’s new tea pavilion.

Former chef Ferran Adrià, who owned the restaurant El Bulli, will now publish more than 20 books covering in-depth analyses of various concepts in gastronomy. His organization, called the El Bulli Foundation, is publishing the series of encyclopedias as part of what it calls the Bullipedia project: volumes of essays and surveys conducted and written by culinary experts.

The first two books, now available in the US, cover wine: “Contextualization and Viticulture” and “Vinification and Classifications.” The volumes include the history, preservation, production, categorization, evolution, and serving of wine. The giant gastro-pedias provide offer professional-level knowledge for interested gastronomists from a western perspective.

A man with dark graying hair looks to to the right of the camera, holding two glasses of wine. He sniffs one.

A man and a woman sit across from each other at a large table using bottles and droppers placed in front of them.

A woman with long light red hair and fair skin holds a dropper over a glass wine bottle.

A man with dark hair and a woman with light red hair stand across from each other at a small square table. An older man stands between them, facing the viewer. The man, on the right, sips wine from a glass.

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"Drops of God" series on Apple TV+

The Apple TV+ series “Drops of God” reveals how intense wine tasting and creation can be. The fictional series follows a daughter who inherits her estranged father’s multimillion dollar wine collection. Camille, the daughter, and the father’s esteemed protégé Issei are both tasked with identifying a wine left as a test by the late father. The story develops under pressures from family drama and dysfunction while Camille takes a crash course in wine making and tasting, effectively turning the series into an unofficial education in oenology.

The Intelligence take

Consumers want to expand their gastronomic expertise and are turning to professionals to learn from the best. As skintellectuals uncovered what ingredients best suited their complexions, gastronomes are sipping on intentional, professional lessons to elevate their etiquette and deepen their understanding of their beverage of choice.

Main image from the "Drops of God" series, courtesy of Apple TV+.

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