Food & wine industry serves up an unexpected romance
Food & wine industry serves up an unexpected romance
[...] when the two met, at a workplace training, Katherine, now 30, had zero thoughts of romance.
Soon after, the two found themselves in a group of co-workers at a birthday party.
When Katherine noticed another girl paying close attention to Julian she inserted herself into their conversation.
The next day, Julian asked her to dinner, and over Korean BBQ — a favorite for both of them — they discovered a shared passion for food, wine and everything about hospitality.
“I told Julian right up front that I liked being in a relationship, and I didn’t like being in the gray zone,” said Katherine, who’d formerly been in a seven-year relationship that started in high school.
When Julian was accepted to culinary school in Napa, the two had three months to wait for his classes to begin.
On the farms, which ranged from dairy farms to vineyards, there were days when the work was hard — weeding, planting, picking berries — and the hours long.
Katherine remembers one night when dinner had not been served by 10 p.m. and she’d been starving since 6 p.m. “Julian always had my back, whether with words of wisdom or a crust of bread,” she said, admitting that there were “lots of tears.”
Julian keeps me grounded, he doesn’t go above mellow,” she said, noting that his ancestry from England is the “cool” to her “Mexican hot.
After Julian finished culinary school, the couple moved from Napa to an apartment on Russian Hill.
Marriage had been talked about, but in May 2014, Julian, now working as a server at Gary Danko, managed to surprise Katherine, now working as a publicist in the food and wine industry, during one of their many outings to Point Reyes.
While on a short hike, he dropped to a knee and offered a ring to a surprised Katherine.
The weather shone for their Santa Barbara wedding, the clear blue sky completed the theme of bright summer with flowers spilling down the outdoor tables at the Belmond El Encanto hotel.
The guests, just under 200 friends and family who came from as far away as Copenhagen and Qatar, enjoyed sweeping views to the ocean, along with their dinner of “low-brow” cheeseburgers.
“The best part of the day was seeing all the people I love in one place,” said Julian, a third-generation Santa Barbarian.
Louise Rafkin is a Bay Area freelance writer.