Meathead

I'm a writer and photographer based in the Chicago area. I've had the privilege of judging food, wine, beer, and spirits around the world: I am a regular at the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue, the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, and I am Chief Judge of the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. I've judged barbecue from Kansas City to Memphis, and wine from California to Italy.

Along the way I have tried to share my love of the gustatory. I have written hundreds of articles about food and drink for consumers as a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune, and scores more for Restaurant Hospitality magazine. I hosted the Food & Drink Network on America Online for nine years, and I have taught at Cornell University's famous Hotel School in Ithaca, NY, and at Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago. As founder of the Beverage Testing Institute I produced seven books on wine, beer, and spirits.

When I smoked marijuana in the '60s my parents warned that it would lead to harder stuff. They were right. I gave up weed and now I smoke meat. But my interest in food is all their fault. It started when they bought a restaurant on Main Street in Sarasota, Florida in the late 1950s. It was named the Oleander, a beautiful local plant. We did not know it was poisonous. And at age 10, I got to be a jerk, a soda jerk that is.

Since then I have become an omnivore, eating and drinking for a living since 1970. It's a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. And I've got wine and sauce stains on all my shirts and the well-marbled waistline to prove I do it well.

Over the years, ribs have become my passion (my wife would call it my obsession) and I am currently writing a book on the subject: Amazing Ribs.

Now you know why they call me "Meathead" and why my motto is "No rules in the bedroom or the kitchen."