CleverRoot

1 0 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t RUTH TOBIAS could write before she could tie her shoes, and she's been chronicling her way through life ever since. After graduating with a BA in English litera- ture from UCLA in 1992, she received an MFA in poetry from the famed Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa before heading to Boston University for her PhD in literature. In Boston, her passion for food com- pelled her to follow an unexpected course of study. While working to obtain her Professional Chef's Certificate at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, she began writing about restaurants and bars for a range of publications. After signing on as the local editor for Zagat, she left academia to pursue a career as a food- and-beverage writer. Tobias now lives in Denver, where she continues to write about dining and drinking for local and national media. Featured Contributor Contributing Editors Lisa M. Airey, Jeremy Ball, Michelle Ball, Jeff Cox, Diane Denham, Tia Gavin, Karen MacNeil, Karen Moneymaker, Merrill Schindler, David Ransom, S. Irene Virbila, Hardy Wilson, Doug Young Contributors Jena Anton, Joann Arruda, Bob Bath, Cal Bingham, Emily Coleman, John Curley, Dustin Downing, Acacia Evans, Elyse Glickman, Chris Granger, Bonnie Heath, Carolyn Horow- itz, Holden Jagger, Adam Larkey, Mara Marski, Jennifer Olson, Greg Powers, Alexander Rubin, Christopher Sawyer, Dennis Viera, Jaime Viera, Élan Villamor, Izzy Watson, Kirk Weddle WHILE ATTENDING THE BEVERAGE INDUSTRY'S BIGGEST CONVENTION, Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sit down with Alain Ducasse, perhaps one of the most notable chefs in the world. Ducasse and Grey Goose's Cellar Master François Thibault were working on a collaboration for the brand and had hosted a dinner pairing the vodka with food from Chef Donald Link. Although all the beignets I ate and French 75's I drank were memorable in their own right, it was my meeting with Ducasse and Thibault that stuck with me most. I can't recall exactly what we talked about, though I remember walking away in awe at their shared ability to describe their work so elegantly—it must be a French thing. When Ducasse's publicist handed me her card and told me to look them up next time I was in Paris, I felt truly lucky. The best perks of being an editor aren't the freebies, but the unexpected experiences that arise while you're working on a story. Whether it's nibbling on caviar served with chilled luxury vodka (page 16), discov- ering the ease of stringless snap peas in the Salinas Valley for our Dig This (seriously, they're great) or venturing to find the hidden beauty beyond the bend (visiting Lazy Creek Vineyards on page 75), these unique adventures are what makes writing for our magazine so exciting. Hopefully we can bring that same sense of excitement to you, our readers. Those adventures also often come in culinary form, whether it's The Clever Root team gathering to conduct an expansive olive oil tasting (page 68), sampling the produce from the bountiful gardens of the Wente Vineyards (page 56) and finding how versatile fall's hottest drink is when paired with food from across the country (our story on Provence rosé is on page 43). I've moved up from Food and Farm Editor to Managing Editor for The Clever Root, so I'll probably being doing a little less Fooding and Farming and a little more Desking and Editing. But I'll still be out there when I can, and will join the rest of you in reading about all the places our magazine can take you. LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR A Sense of Adventure ■cr PHOTO: BRENT CAMPANELLI

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