search by region
Pacific-West West Central Mid-West South-East North-East
  • Region
Pacific-West West Central Mid-West South-East North-East
  • Location
  • to search by radius, close this filter and enter a zip code in the search box above
  • Category
  • Type
  • Compensation
Laura Munoz
Operations
Wine for the World
September 02, 2014

Laura's transformation from aspiring to wait tables after college to changing the world through wine is inspiring, hilarious, and beautifully honest. One of the best things about gaining the freedom to do work that you love is finding the courage and perspective to tell it like it is.

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

For me it was more of a snowball effect than a lightning strike. I usually tell people I got into wine while studying in Italy my junior year, but that isn't really true?I spent most of that time drinking tequila-spiked smoothies from a place called Frulalà.

New York is what got me. The Astor Center, the Union Square Greenmarket, the Balthazar cookbook. The sheer number of food and wine projects that are constantly evolving and overlapping here, and the energy and skill of the people working on them. I moved to New York in the middle of your typical post-undergrad identity crisis? I had worked in a restaurant in college, so I thought I would just do it again for a bit while I figured out my next move. I applied for a job in the wine cellar at Balthazar, mostly because I didn't have air conditioning in my first apartment. But once I was there, I started doing tastings, and I started learning, and pretty soon I was spending afternoons wandering around Chelsea Wine Vault with a notebook, reading every label, and that's when I realized I was onto something. My next move ended up being WSET wine school.

How did you get your current good food job?

I found it on Good Food Jobs! I was determined to reconcile this growing interest in wine with the desire to contribute to a bigger idea; to use wine to affect some kind of positive change in the world. I was out to dinner with some friends one night and we started throwing out ideas - how do you combine wine and social good? Wine and global development? We thought that somebody had to be working at that intersection, and not two weeks later I was browsing GFJ and discovered that somebody was. The idea behind Wine for the World is to help talented winemakers in developing countries gain access to the US market through collaborations with some of Napa's best. They were looking for an Operations/Business Development person, and there was no money yet, but I was so excited by the project, I probably would've paid them to let me work on it. So I sent a resume and references to Mika Bulmash, who founded the company, and basically offered to do anything that needed doing, for free, for as long as I could. In retrospect I didn't exactly play hard to get.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?

I don't know if it was the work itself so much as the people I worked for. Rebecca Banks at Balthazar, Rain Lampariello at The Standard, David Mancini at Le Bernardin and Peter Lawrence at Wythe Hotel all taught me tons about decisiveness and persistence and responsibility and generally being an adult. They gave me opportunities I probably wasn't qualified for, and trusted me with things I had no idea how to do. And they gave me a lot of support and guidance; a nudge in the right direction or a kick in the ass when I needed one. I learned how to work from those people.
Being a sommelier was a natural progression from the wine cellar, but it really wasn't my thing. One of the aforementioned bosses finally had the sense to put me behind a desk, and that's where I learned to focus on my strengths and stop trying to succeed at something I didn't like doing anyway. It had never occurred to me that simply being organized and getting things done could be a job, but as it turns out, that's Operations. I joke that I got into wine for the lists, but it's kind of true, I love lists. So by the time I got to Wine for the World, I knew what I was good at and where I could contribute. Mika thinks I sell myself short, but I would argue that's only further evidence that I'm not a very good salesperson.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?

Time. There just wasn't enough of it. Once I was on board at WFTW, it became a matter of finding a day job with enough flexibility to allow me to actually work on it. So for about a year I was working two jobs, six days a week, answering emails on my lunch breaks, and I always felt like I was trying to catch up. There was never any guarantee that this would turn into a full-time paid gig, and it's difficult to plan your life around something with so many variables. I was constantly hedging my bets and making contingency plans; giving that up and just rolling with the uncertainty of it all was a real challenge. It sounds kind of hokey, but ultimately I really just believed in this idea and this company, and I trusted the people I work with. It was the best decision I ever made, and totally worth sticking it out.
I think there's this sort of fluffy, romantic mentality around "dream jobs" though - that once you find your dream job, it won't even feel like work because you'll just love it so much. Quitting my day job once we got funding was a pretty amazing feeling, but even a dream job is still a job. There are stressful parts, and frustrating parts, and it does feel like work, but I don't think "work" is inherently a negative, draining, soul-sucking thing. It can be very gratifying and oddly energizing when you find the right confluence of elements.

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?

I'm really interested in the intersection of technology and sustainable farming. It's a touchy subject because as people are becoming more aware of the ugly aspects of industrial farming, GMO's, et. al, there's this "back to the land" mentality; we've sort of stopped trusting technology when it comes to our food. Simple = good, processed = bad, and I get why people want to simplify supply chains and the industry as a whole, but I don't think it's an either/or.  There are also tremendous opportunities to develop and use technology in good ways, to help small sustainable farms grow more natural food. There's a start-up in California called Fruition Sciences, which installs tiny sensors on plants to monitor wind patterns, water absorption, temperature fluctuations etc, so the plants can actually tell the farmer what they need and when. It's not changing or interrupting any of the natural processes, but it helps the people who grow food make informed decisions and stop wasting water. I think that's so simple and smart and cool.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?

I should probably say wine, but the truth is there are so many things I want to learn how to do... I wish I could get paid in Portuguese/photography/mountain climbing lessons. I would also gladly accept payment in the form of Jeni's Whiskey & Pecan ice cream.
More stories in business, education, success story
Related Jobs