Maria Hunt's Food/Wine Portfolio

"Try it, you'll like it." I love food and wine, and the way cuisine can help people understand their world more deeply. That passion led me to work as a food journalist, waitress, restaurant critic and bartender; travel the world; and author a book on sparkling wine and champagne.

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On a visit to Farmstead, I noticed that they listed St. Helena High as the recipient of corkage fees. I remembered seeing something similar at a restaurant in Sonoma, and turned it into a trend piece that I sold to the SF Chronicle. 

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San Diego Union-Tribune Enterprise Story

Part of my role as the food writer and restaurant critic at the paper involved writing about new restaurant openings. But in February 2007 or so, I realized that an unusual number of restaurants were months past their projected opening dates. I started asking around, and learned that the police chief was holding up liquor licenses, over the objections of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. I had to convince scared business owners to talk on the record, and use statistics to show that police action was atypical. The story on the effects of the police department’s tactics ran on A-1.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2007/mar/07/police-keeping-liquor-licenses-bottled/2/

About two weeks later, the police department announced a reversal in policy, which cleared the way for 40 businesses to get the licenses they needed.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20070322/news_1n22license.html

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“It was clear very early on in our careers as chefs that a big part of our job satisfaction came from meeting guests, getting to know them….” – Stuart Brioza

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Please click on the image to see a larger version of the story or visit Forbes Travel Guide to see the full version. 

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While freelancing full time, I had the opportunity to visit a cooking school in Puglia. I shared what I learned about this windswept region’s wine and cuisine in this article for The Tasting Panel. One of the most interesting discoveries was that negroamaro doesn’t mean “black bitter” in Italian — it actually means “blackest of blacks.” 

Click to view the full article Down at the Heel 

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Talk to any sommelier and you’ll quickly learn that riesling is one of her favorite white grapes, for its versatility, sheerness and magical ability to age. I was able to interview a master of wine, master sommelier, the head of the Culinary Institute of America’s wine program and the then-owner of the only monopole in the U.S., the Cole Ranch about this singular grape. 

Click to view the full article The Rise of Riesling

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From Bespoke Magazine, June 2014

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Once the barrel-aged cocktail trend had taken hold, I started noticing lots of other food artisans and chefs were adopting the technique. I wrote versions of this cocktail-influenced trend piece for Forbes.com and Wine & Spirits Magazine. 

Click to read Bourbon’s New Role in the Culinary World. 

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Shop Houzz Product Marketing Content & Copywriting

From June 2014 to September 2015, I lead the team of 14 freelancers and five staff who created product marketing content for the Shop Houzz division of Houzz.com, the leading international home design platform. Over that time, I scaled content from one collection per week to more than 40,  and launched a dedicated shopping newsletter, resulting in a significant increase in revenue. The role involved everything from devising concepts for timely content, editing, creative direction, setting voice and tone, art directing original photography, photo editing and optimizing product titles and descriptions. I often invited tastemakers and personalities in food and design to share their expertise via special collections as a way of creating story around our products. 

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During the winter holiday season,  I created a series of three inspirational blog posts for Williams-Sonoma’s The Blender blog. The second two posts dealt with making simple cocktails and pairing them with appetizers. Working with my photographer friend Brooke Lydecker, I styled these natural light shots using my own props at her studio in Tiburon. Please click on the images to enlarge them. 

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I started studying wine while at the Union-Tribune so I could assess wine lists in my restaurant reviews and know what I was talking about.  I had always loved sparkling wines, and was thrilled to learn how well they paired with foods. But few people outside of wine circles knew this.  At the same time, I noticed more and more international sparkling wines showing up at my local BevMo. 

I pitched a sparkling cocktail book in 2007, and it was purchased by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House. My book unique was unique at the time because it was educational as well as entertaining, teaching reader the difference between the terms sparkling wine and Champagne, how to pronounce different French words commonly found on labels, how to set up a home bar and make mixers like simple syrup. were including a range of sparkling wines.

The recipes started with classics like the Kir Royale and Champagne Julep, and progressed through themed chapters of original cocktails created by me and other mixologists. I hired the team to produce the book, styled all the photos and created a blog to help promote it and create a platform for me as an expert on sparkling wines and cocktails.

To learn more about The Bubbly Bar, please visit thebubblygirl.com

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Marketing Copywriting - Dining Newsletter for San Diego Magazine

As the editor of San Diego Magazine’s monthly Main Dish newsletter, I was responsible for curating the content for this marketing vehicle and writing timely copy on local chefs, new restaurants and events. The newsletter went to the magazine’s 40,000 subscribers.

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Drinks & Travel Writing - Modern Luxury Magazines

As a freelance contributor for Modern Luxury Magazines, I was able to combine two of my loves: travel and drinks with history. I went to France to experience the creation of a custom Champagne and to the St. Regis Hotel in New York City to learn the secrets of the original Bloody Mary, which was popularized there. 

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Food Personality Profiles - Riviera Magazine/Modern Luxury Group

As a freelance contributor for Modern Luxury Magazines, I wrote business and personality profiles on a variety of people. These were two of my favorites on the founder of Ty Ku Sake and the Food Network personality Marcela Valladolid.

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Travel/Culinary Writing - Forbes & Forbes Travel Guide

As a writer for Forbes Travel Guide and Forbes.com, I cover trends in the luxury space on travel, restaurants, events and hotels. My role involves curating relevant experiences and marketing my work via social media tools. My stories have included a primer on the America’s Cup regatta to o the bourbon barrel food trend. To see more of my work, visit http://blog.forbestravelguide.com/author/mariahunt

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Medlock Ames “is as delightfully granola as it gets, with farm tours, all-organic vineyards and sustainable practices at this mostly solar-powered winery.”

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Food business feature story on Ted Turner & bison

When I learned that media mogul and bison rancher Ted Turner would be speaking at a Sonoma winery, I arranged to interview him about his love for the bison and how he helped protect the animal by creating a market for its healthy meat. It appeared in Montage Hotels' magazine.