Lifestyle

The wines being made in South Africa are pretty exciting to taste! I already knew how good the Chenin Blancs were but I had not...

08 August, 2019
As Maude continues to celebrate its fifth anniversary this year, what screams celebration more than Champagne?!?!  The Maude team snuck off to Champagne, the region that shares its name with the sparkling wine it produces, for an intense three-day trip to explore the food and wine. Located in the northeastern part of France, approximately 100 miles outside of Paris, Champagne is one of the great wine regions of the world. After visiting Champagne houses, local pastry shops, boulangeries and butchers, the team returned to Los Angeles to translate their experience into a ten-course menu. My friends and I booked our table for dinner and per usual, we brought the wines with us. As comprehensive and high quality as the wine list is at Maude, the regional dinners at Maude allow my friends, and sometimes me, to bring older vintages from our cellars. We started with Vouette & Sorbee Saignee de Sorbee, a rosé Champagne and then proceeded to open a series of delicious bottles included the Lanson Noble Cuvee 1989, Andre Beaufort 1990 Brut, Philipponat Clos des Goisses 1999 and Moet & Chandon White Star (circa 1970s)
06 August, 2019
Legendary rock band Queen with American Idol alum Adam Lambert returned to Los Angeles this past week to the Forum for The Rhapsody Tour. The first time Adam Lambert performed with Queen was on the American Idol finale in 2009. I cried as I listened to Adam Lambert sing with my all-time favorite band. I saw them in concert when they went on their first world tour in 2014-2015 and then again on their second worldwide tour in 2017-2018. Now, following the Oscar-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen and Adam Lambert are on tour again and without a doubt, The Rhapsody Tour is the Please The Palate pick of the week. Everything about the concert was excellent! Brian May and Roger Taylor are still as talented as ever, as witnessed by the guitar and drum solos. And Adam Lambert is an amazing talent. He is a showman and a performer but he also has an extraordinary voice. The show opened with “Keep Yourself Alive” and “Killer Queen” and then Lambert spoke to the audience to address the “pink elephant in the room,” as he called it. He said “I am not Freddie Mercury. I f---ing know, because there will only be one Freddie Mercury. There’s no replacing him. All I’m here to do tonight is celebrate Freddie and carry the torch for Freddie. And I hope I’m making him proud.” He then performed “Don’t Stop Me Now”.  Adam Lambert is not Freddie Mercury but he can definitely hold his own.
27 July, 2019
Taking my nephew to Legoland was one of the most memorable of weekends. Watching the joy and excitement in him as he saw his favorite Ninjago characters come to life was priceless. Legoland was a 6-year-old's fantasy world come true and I wrote about our trip in the Napa Valley Register, which I share here. If you are looking for a fun family activity, make sure Legoland is on your list! Legoland California, located in Carlsbad, on the north side of San Diego County, just turned 20 years old.
While Legoland may be 20, its biggest fans are between 4 and 10 years old. So, when I went down to Legoland to celebrate its birthday, I had to bring two of Lego’s biggest fans, my 5 3/4-year-old nephew Harrison and his friend, Thomas.
We arrived in the evening, just around bedtime. But when we pulled up to the Legoland Castle Hotel, which opened last year and sits next to the Legoland entrance, bedtime was put on hold.
The 250-room hotel looks like a Lego castle and inside the lobby, a child’s fantasy came to life. A large Lego pit sits in the center of the lobby and there is also a slide. While the adults stood in a long line to check in, the children were running, playing and exploring.
25 July, 2019
I first met Steve Beckmen of Beckmen Vineyards almost 20 years ago. He was one of the first people I heard speak about biodynamic farming. Twenty years later, we sat down and tasted his wines. The maturity of the vineyards and the passion of Steve come through in the balance and complexity of the wines and you can read my story that I wrote in the Napa Valley Register below her. When I first started in the wine business almost 20 years ago, I would take consumers on day trips from Los Angeles to the Santa Barbara wine country for a day of tasting and education. We would visit different wineries and the winemakers would meet with our group to share their stories.
11 July, 2019

Happy Summer 2019! I hope you had a wonderful, long 4th of July weekend. This summer (specifically June 8th), marks the 8th anniversary of Please...

09 July, 2019
My favorite way to explore a culture is through the cuisine. It is one of the most interesting, and filling, ways to understand a culture's history as well as its role today. Cuba is no exception. A country that seemed blocked off from the world, at least the US, for decades, Cuba has a fascinating culinary history. And, despite the new restrictions on traveling to Cuba, a culinary tour with Access Culinary Trips is still permitted! Here is a a recap of my culinary trip to Cuba, which I originally wrote about in the Napa Valley Register. Despite new restrictions for Americans traveling to Cuba, it is still a top destination for tourists. And rightfully so. The largest country in the Caribbean, Cuba is a semitropical island with a coastline marked by bays, reefs, keys and islets as well as long stretches of lowlands and swamp. Half of the island is mountainous with the Sierra Masetra mountains to the east, the Trinidad mountains in the center and the Sierra de los Organos in the west.
When I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, Cuba was always off limits to me, somewhere I never thought I would be able to visit. But when restrictions were lifted in 2016, Cuba moved to the top of my list. I did not act on booking a trip right away, but as new restrictions came into place, I decided I could wait no longer. The good news is that is Cuba is still open to Americans and is a place worth visiting.
04 July, 2019
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