Tell us a little bit about your background, and how you became known as the Cocktail Whisperer.
I was working unsuccessfully and unhappily in the corporate world for twenty or so years, trying to please my father and grandfather who were certain that I would never amount to anything in life. They were correct! It took six failures and a bankruptcy, plus divorce and being disowned to find that what I had to become successful was inside of me all along. I was in one of my incarnations a trained chef from dish sink to culinary school and into my own business. Unfortunately, my business was located in Charleston, South Carolina. I was the first and as of then, the only manufacturer of fresh pasta in South Carolina. I lost my business in Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Becoming a chef/saucier didn’t just go away for me. While I toiled in the corporate world of banking, I nurtured my craft as a chef on my days off and on holidays. When I lost my corporate job, no fault of my own- I reinvented myself yet again. This time in wine/spirits. The cocktail whisperer grew out of an alliance with an online magazine known at the time as Served RAW. They dubbed me their cocktail whisperer and the name stuck.