GastroShark
GastroShark is a wine and food writer, educated in the UK and moved to Reykjavik. My gastronomic life started early; I was born into a thriving hotel and restaurant business and from a tender age was frog-marched into the kitchen to bake cakes. By the age of eight I was tasting the guests' left-over wine (albeit illicitly) and my teenage years were charactarised by more wine drinking and kitchen toil. After studying something completely random at university (Scandinavian languages) I turned my attention back to wine and studied and passed the WSET Advanced Certificate in Wine and Spirits within a week (www.wset.co.uk), a qualification now being introduced to Vinbudin staff in Iceland. My addiction to wine was confirmed and I landed a job at Bibendum Wine Ltd in Primrose Hill, London. One year there and a wine bill of £1,500 taught me everything I needed to know and I set off on a year of culinary exploration around London, greatly helped by an increased pay check. I also took to my new kitchen with gastro-gusto and began concocting up daily treats, sourcing fresh quality produce from local markets, butchers and delis (and Waitrose of course). However, I became fed up with the quality of food, service and prices in London (especially after trips to Iceland where the restaurant food was considerably better value) and compiled a list of eating and drinking places in London which were neither over-priced nor dull (to be found under the 'Escape Iceland' section). I also took a Food Writing course with BBC Olive Magazine editor, Lulu Grimes, which allowed me to put my food and wine knowledge into words and attended various culinary workshops around London. Then came a stroke of luck (or fate); an offer of a flat in Reykjavik - gastro mecca of the North Atlantic. I arrived in February 2007, armed with as many wine books and rubber cake tins I could squeeze in one bag, and spent the next 18 months fishing around Reykjavik for invaluable titbits for the website. I'm now taking a year's leave from Iceland as I return to university in Italy to study for my Masters degree. The University of Gastronomic Sciences in Parma offers the mother-of-all gastronomy courses - I can't wait to sharpen my teeth and get stuck in!
