Ep. 304 #iobevoacasa - LOCKDOWN SERIES | Geralyn Brostrom and Tara Empson

I made a sheep kick the other day, and I let it rest. And then all of a sudden during the night, when I was sleeping, the head fell off. Well, come to the Italian wine podcast lockdown series. Every Monday will be connecting with Italian wine people. Join us to find out what they're doing and drinking today. This podcast is brought to you by Colangelo and Partners, the leading fine wine and spirits agency in the US. Visit Colangelo and partners on w w w dot ColangeloPR dot com. Hello, Tara. Thanks for joining us today. I Geralyn. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Your your kitchen looks fantastic. I can't wait to hear what's going on there. But I think by way of letting our listeners know a little bit about let's say the the last year of your life, which has been really exciting. You just came back to the States to become CEO of Emsing companies, but I think it would say to say that you literally grew up in the wine business while your family was building both export and import companies. I understand that you were that Empson exports to thirty two different countries and then of course there's your USA based business. So, tell us a little bit about your role in the last year and and, you know, what your days were like? Well, yeah, I literally grew up in the wine business. So most of my memories were falling asleep while my mother's laugh in restaurants, but I was a child and playing low quality pockets. My parents took me everywhere. And, I grew up with the producers. To this day, we still have most of our producers in our portfolio, which I I think is a very lucky thing. And there were a relationship based company. And, about a year, a year and a half ago, my parents decided to pass me the the banner, which was, such an honor considering, you know, all the times that I've frustrated them and all of it. So stupid things I've done growing up. So you trusted me that much, which is great. But, no, that's that aside. Yeah. So I grew up in Italy and I decided about a year ago to change. Because I had be I had spent so much time there and literally ever since I was four and a half that I realized that I'd never spent a lot of time in America, if it wasn't off and on an airplane. So, yeah, so here I am and in Virginia, which check our our headquarters is here. And, I'm loving it. Excellent. Excellent. So now that you're not in the office anymore, how are you spending your time? How has your routine changed? I've I've learned to take care of things better, actually. It's it's an odd thing to say. You know, you're always busy on an airplane, going to the office coming back, doing. And, you know, this time has really taught me to cherish the things that I have and actually take care of it. I painted my walls. I've been baking. I take care of my dogs and just enjoying enjoying the things that I've worked for and that my parents for. That's fantastic. But you're I think you're being, modest in saying you've been baking. It looks like you've got a sort of professional, line up there. I don't I don't know if I ever told you this, but I I taught, wine studies at the Colinary Institute of America. We call it the CIA, obviously, here in the States. And this is Yeah. It's different. The CIA. Yes. Yes. There's no espionage involved. There's a lot of cooking, but no espionage. And this is an entire course. I mean, there are spectacular, you know, creations like yours that take these students, almost, you know, a half a year to make. So so And we're gonna talk a little bit in detail about some of your creations, but, tell me how did you get interested in this and how did you how did you learn the craft? So when I was about twenty two, twenty three, I walked into a bookstore in Milan, and I was walking around and there was this little book. And I opened it up, and it had the most beautiful fondant cake creations I'd ever seen. And I had never I I my mother was someone she never drank your Coca Cola. We never had sugar in the house. But at that moment, I realized that, okay, I'm not really a sweet type of person, but I wanna make things that beautiful, and I'm not gonna stop until I achieve my goal. What are some of the secrets, when it comes to baking? Well, the difference between cooking and baking is that baking, if you don't if you don't have patience to do it, it's you can never corrected. And you're either gonna do it right or don't bother. And in the kitchen, however, you can add spices, you can add salt, you can flavor it. And baking, if you don't get things right, then just throw it in the garbage, and it's terrible to say that because everybody hates to weigh but up with them. So we have a lot of cakes in my lifetime of, you know, we were talking about that. I made a sheet cake the other day and I let it rest and then all of a sudden during the night when I was sleeping, the head fell off. So, by the time I picked it up in the morning, it looked like an ugly hug. So I was like, I can't give this cake to anyone. What am I gonna do? But, you know, you don't stop there. You're trying to. Right. Okay. Well, that would be the difference. That would be the difference. So, So so let's let's talk about some of these creations. What what do you have in front of you today? So to my left, which I had to make a few days ago, I do apologize. I'm the freshest of cakes, but it's my little vanilla international cake. So This is my three d. That's fantastic. Well, that's like super great idea. Thank you. So that was, so it's basically just layers of cake frosting on the inside buttercream on the outside. And, you have to cover it with fondant. And to make something like this, it usually takes about two, three days to just preparation a lot, and I'm I'm scared to touch it because something's gonna fall off. And then we can talk about a cake design And then over here, I have a Boston creme pie because it's my neighbor's son's birthday. So, he asked me for a Boston creme pie, which I made for the first time yesterday. So now my neighbor's gonna get two cakes. You mentioned fondant earlier. Tell us a little bit about that. And why does it take three days to set up? Because five five it's a sugar base, and, it takes time to dry. So the the hardest part when you're actually dealing when you're actually working with funding is let it set and dry. So, basically, I have a piece of fondant here. You can tell it's very pliable. So I have put some sugar here. It's always good to have powdered sugar. So So just FYI, right here, we have, I just made cups of flour, sugar, chocolate, which are the base ingredients for anything that you wanna do in milk and everything else. But in this particular case, going back to the fondant, you roll it out Just always make sure you have a flat surface. If not, it's a battle, you'll never gonna win. And then from there, you you create. You, it's you just have to be careful not to touch it too much, and any sort of temperature is critical because it will melt and that's how you get a puck sheet. And, so let's, let's, like, sort of deconstruct that vin Vin Italy cake, which, by the way, was so touching because you all of us would be at Van Italy right now this week. So, I I I think it's it's very appropriate. And you've got a little bunny down there. So you're, you know, you're, and the Italian cup flag and and the fact that it's a a DOCG. I love that. But but how do you apply that? Do you spread that with your hands, or do you do you have certain tools that you need to use because of the temperature? No. You you it's always best to use tools. So here, I mean, obviously, this is a small one. I do have bigger ones in my closet, so not in my closet. The pantry. So, you know, you roll it out and then from there, you can pretty much this is for flattening anything, paintbrushes because in this case, you also have to put edible coloring on your cake. So everything needs to be edible. So I think, thankfully, America is the country of cake decorating, so you can find anything and everything here. So I'm very, very lucky. I know. Our kitchen our kitchen stores are you could get lost in there for about five hours. So I I saw on, Instagram some really interesting, cakes that you created. There was a sailboat, a snowman, this fabulous Easter bunny, and that Venetian, I guess it was a Venetian cake, maybe it was Marty Gras, that had the beautiful mask. So, obviously, we're looking at a wine bottle, and that's been an inspiration. But how do you decide what what's your inspiration for the shapes and the outcome of your cakes? That's a very good question. It it depends on who you're making them for. What you're okay. So I don't eat my cakes. Yeah. For for two reasons, a, because I'm not a big sugar fan. And b because I, I'm too critical of anything that I make. So we all are. I mean, come on. At the end of the day, you know, if you if you have a special occasion or someone in mind, then it helps you it helps you wanna make it. So that when you you research or I like to go on, I like I like to look at Pinterest where other people are doing or thank God for Google. And, that's basically where you get your inspiration, and then you try. What are some of the interesting wines that one might pair with, some of these creations of yours? So that's that's a very good question. So one of the categories that I think has been a little bit abandoned and you're right. I mean, it's mainly up to the restaurant business to try and promote is the whole restaurant dessert category of of wines, which, as you know, Italy has, you know, and when your friends have an amazing selection of these wines and you know, usually people will order another bottle of wine before they'll reserve to dessert dessert wines and it's a shame. So what we're have today is two different option actually three different options for you, but today we're just gonna show you two different walls. So one of them here we have almost Scottsdale from Marquarini. This is something that I would propose. It's it's got a good it's a sparkling sweet base that goes very well with, with with just any sort of dessert if you wanna look at it that way. And then here we have a beautiful hounder, pacita, Lima de Zien. It's from Salina, here we're in the aeolian Islands. So here where you're gonna have is like a lot of, apricot honey on your on your pallet. So this can go very well with many different desserts. And the third wine, which, is going to, you're gonna see, is the, which goes very well with chocolate, by the way. So that's you that I would personally recommend. And, the story actually is kinda cool. So it was created in the eight hundreds in Piedmont because from it's from, how do you say it hurts? And, it was it's a her umbrella base, basically. And, it it was made to cure ailments during the winter. So that shows you. Yes. So it's neat. So Yeah. It's, one of those, north northwestern Italy is full of, you know, aromatized, all kinds of aromatized beverages and, infused beverages. And so yes. Kinata would definitely cure your ills and would definitely be a great match, for Kate. So, but but honestly, the fact that you taught yourself by just, you know, discovering it in a book and then pursuing it, I think to your point when we first started is that if there is something you've been putting off, go for it. You know, try it now and don't then you'll you'll never have to look back and and you will have had personal enrichment but you've also tried, you know, something else, in your life. So that's fantastic. If you're that type of person, then baking is for you. Yep. Yeah. Well, Tara, thanks so much for joining today. I think we're all a little more in inspired, to do something like this. And hopefully you and I will see each other on the wine roads out there very soon. Thank you so much, Carolyn. I appreciate it. Thank you for Okay. Okay. Have a great day. Wait. I forgot. Oh, salutte. Beautiful. See you next Monday for another virtual wine journey Italian wine podcast lockdown series.