Ep. 1456 Fiona Chin | Voices With Cynthia Chaplin

Hey, guys. Check out Italian wine unplugged two point o brought to you by Mama jumbo shrimp, a fully updated second edition, reviewed and revised by an expert panel of certified Italian wine ambassadors from across the globe. The book also includes an addition by professoria Atilushienza. Italy's leading vine geneticist. To pick up a copy today, just head to Amazon dot com or visit us at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. I'm Cynthia Chaplin, and this is voices. Every Wednesday, I will be sharing conversations with international wine industry professionals discussing issues in diversity, equity, and inclusion through their personal experiences, working in the field of wine. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and rate our show wherever you get your pods. Hello, and welcome to voices. This is Cynthia Chaplin. And today, I'm very happy to welcome Fiona Chen to the show. Fiona was a recent We need to lead international academy student here in verona, and she was six successful in her quest to become an Italian wine ambassador. So I'm very happy to have her with me. Fiona's living in France, working for wine scholar guild, and so she has a very interesting journey into wine. So I'm really happy to have you here today, Fiona. Thank you for giving us the time. I know our listeners are gonna wanna hear about how you got to where you are. Hi, everybody. This is Fiona, from NASA Sunny, and I'm very happy to be here. Thank you, Cynthia. You're welcome. Well, of course, you are living in in France and working for wine scholar Guild, but that is not where your wine journey started. So let's hear how in the world did you get into wine? Because I know you've come through Singapore and Taiwan. Where did you have your first glass of wine? What got you into wine? I can't really recall my first glass of wine, but how I got into wine in Tiling one specifically was back in twenty sixteen that I've been working for the design in this for some time. My background was in English literature in industrial design, but I've always had this kind of like thirst and hunger for Italian wine cuisine. So I decided that I want to move to Italy and learn how to cook. So I spent eight months in Asdi in Tarino, went to the cooking school, and, I actually did the internship in, Italian, Mission Star restaurant. In Toronto. Fantastic. That's one of the most ancient Italian restaurants in in Italy or even the world. I think we all know the name. Yeah. And what is amazing. And, like, When you're eating, you have to drink wine, right? And I was just so fortunate that for me, I was the first proper introduction to wine was Babaresco Barrolo, Toceto Barbera. I was very fortunate that I was You were. That's a that's a much classier story than, you know, most people, myself included, you know, started off with really bad wine and got interested and and worked with you. You started at the top. You have nowhere else to go now. Yes. No. There's no return, so you can see why I'm here in burgundy now. So I'm, like, my appetite with Google. It's just like, I started with the best. I have to, you know, continue with the with with this route. So Well, which is excellent. So and, you know, let's just face facts here. I'm a lot older than you. Not that old, are, to be honest. Neither of us are Italian. So it's always a challenge coming to Italy and getting into, you know, the Anogastronomy sector as a as a foreign woman. So And when you first came to ASTy to go to the school to learn how to cook and started working in the industry in the Michelin, especially in the Michelin industry, how how did it go for you? Do people take you seriously as a, you know, relative a young, foreign woman. To be honest, it was so difficult. I bet it was. It was so difficult because I had no previous experiences in the kitchen. And so even though I did, a course in need, Italian cuisines, it was nothing like actually working in the Mission Star restaurant. My friends, they will joke around and call me, or just, like, princess Mulan because, you know, I wonder have you ever watched the movie Mulan? Oh my god. That's just outrageous princess from the phone. Yeah. She because she was, like, They they will call me that I could total, casino because I am just, like, I am just not there. I just couldn't do it, like, physically. It just so so much. I need to work, like, seventeen hours a day from Tuesday to Sunday. And we have to do lunch service and dinner service. It was and we need when we can't just like when you're there, you don't stop. It was just crazy. So, like, for after a couple of months, I was like, okay. Been there. Done that. I'm going to do something else. I'm going to drink wine. That's all. So That's that's incredible. I think so many of started, you know, on the floor. My brother is the chef owner of a restaurant. A lot of people in the sector started on the floor in hospitality, and it is an incredibly hard life. I mean, I know my my somedays on the floor were very short because it wasn't, That wasn't what I wanted to do. So so what did you do next? You decided you wanted to drink wine. You didn't wanna be in the kitchen anymore. Quite a wise decision, frankly. So what was the next step? So, I moved back to Taiwan. I started to work as a brand ambassador for Italian, Italian restaurant chain. So I was your brand ambassador, and they also do, food and wine product imports. So I was actually, like, selling direct to consumers, introducing them to Italian culture, teaching Toni's consumer about, okay, how can you utilize the beautiful Italian food products, the cheese, the pasta, and then incorporate them into the daily townies sort of like food, habits. So that was my job. And how did that go? How did that go? I'm interested in Taiwan. You know, how how did they take to having Italian wine and food introduced to them? Because it's so different from Taiwanese's food. Yeah. And, but actually, there's a lot of similarity to be honest. Like, I was, for example, a botaga. Botaga is like the Limula Row. Yeah. And, actually, we have something similar in Taiwan. It's just like different kinds of approach that we we we we We use it differently. But when I'm trying to introduce them, like, okay, we have something like that, but it's called in Chinese. And then people start to understand. And then so it's actually very a lot of similarities that we can find, in town is cuisine, in the Italian cuisine because we are all the two cultures, we are very passionate about our food. So That's pretty cool. So, basically, you became a food translator. That's that's actually very cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I started out in food, but then I pivot to wine. So So, yeah, it's it's, it's a long journey, but, I mean, I'm very happy where I am right now. Yeah. Well, then you then you went on to Singapore, and now you're back in France. So It's been it's been quite a lot of ocean crossing for you, and studying wine. In the meantime, you've gotten your MBA and wine and spirits. And what other studies did you do before you came to Via? Yeah. So that completed my WST level three and level two level three and also in spirits. And, I just, I'm just about to graduate from my MBA in one in spirits that was a lot. And, I just undid my thesis in consumer perception about sustainability in wine so that I did that. That's such an interesting topic. I was very lucky to have, a master of wine, Steven Charter as my thesis professor. So that was, very interesting. And, also, since I've been living in Burgundy. So I've been, taking the course from Wainscholar Guild, the master program for Burgundy wine. And also Italian wine as well. And I will have to say, like, living Italy, the Via program has been the most challenging, but also the most gratifying experience all throughout all of my wine studies. So I'm so glad to hear that. I and it sounds like we almost lost you to the clutches of the French. So I wonder when did you hear about Via? How did you hear about that? Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp. For fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond, meeting winemakers, eating local foods and taking in the scenery. Now, back to the show. So, actually, it's, like, back in twenty nineteen that before moving to Singapore, I I that's when I decided that, okay, I wanna do wine. So I reached out to I really love about one thing I really love about v s, the community. So I reached out to Amelia. She's ambassador based in Taiwan, and I also reached out to Jessica and Wanshing, and they're, that the other two ambassadors in in, in Singapore. Because what I know is that I love about Italian wine, and I want to know more about Italian one because I know it's very difficult. It's very complicated. And I did some research, and I'm, like, and I some stumbled upon a Italian one Ambassador program. So that is, when I feel like, okay, this is the the the path that I want to pursue. And I reached out to them, and they're they've been very helpful in helping me get in here. So, like, the day when I pass my exam, I immediately text Jessica, and and I just told her that, oh my gosh, I passed. And she has been there for me, like, throughout this year because of a COVID, I was supposed to cancel verona back in twenty twenty, but I know. I remember. But then we did the agile, but then, you know, back in the past, in the past couple of years, things has been crazy. I've been moving from Singapore to France. And with my studies in MBA, I just couldn't make it. So it has been postponed for so long. But then I feel like if if I will have if if I camp here in twenty twenty, I wouldn't have passed. Because I feel like in wine world, it's really like the more you know, the more you don't know. That's so true. So so yeah. So I was really lucky that I feel like everything happens for a reason. So I just feel like, okay. Twenty twenty three. I'm ready. I'm here. So, yeah, I I I was able to to to to get the ping, and then, yeah, it was it was just amazing. Well, we were we were so grateful to have you. And you you had a great study group and you had a great video group. And I just wanted well, I wanted to ask you what you thought of that process about, you know, as you said, you fell in love with the community, which always makes me super happy because I that's one of the best things about Via. We don't just put you through a course, give you a pin and kick you out the door. You become part of the community, and we do trips and and other things throughout the year. And even if you don't pass, you're still involved. So I'm really glad that you appreciated that, but I wanna hear about your experience once you got here because you waited long enough to come to tow it in everything else, and so many people were so disappointed during that time. I'm always happy to speak to people who eventually got here. You stuck you stuck to your guns. You got here. And how was it for you? The the four days of the course are pretty intense. You had to do the video project. But tell me tell me how it was. So I was very lucky that, I was able to did the video project with Susana, Sean and Jamie. So Sean and I, we actually met back in Singapore. So that was nice. And Susana, she's based in Hong Kong, and she approached me. And I was like, yeah, why not? And Jamie, he was, like, because we there's a couple of Asians, Chinese, Chinese, the base in France, but he was the odd number. So so he was, like, he approached me and said, hey, Fiona. Do you need a group? Was like, yeah. Why not? Just join us. So that was all very nice because, you know what, like, even though we are all Asians, but we come from different parts of Asia, there are people from China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, Hong Kong, So we were able to, you know, come together and then bring something different, that we want to showcase how Italian wine could prepare with Chinese Asian cuisines, but not just like Chinese cuisine, but cuisines around Southeast Asia and from Taiwan. So that was really great. And we actually we became very close. And Susanna Sean and I We actually we after the Via, we actually went on the trip to Trentina Alta AliJ and to lugano, and it was just amazing. Like, we were able because it's just not the language that we share. It's not Chinese or English. It's a Italian One language that we share. So we Oh, I love that. That's great. Yeah. So, like, really speak each other's language and and it was just amazing. Like, and then after even, I've been until today that we were still chatting, you know, we was just, like, sharing, like, what's happening in our lives, what we what we are drinking and what have we found in back in Susena's back in Hong Kong, but she was just sharing that. She found the bottle wine that the, of the wine that we visited and back in, out of Audi. So it was just, like, Yeah. This is I'm just really lucky. I'm very happy that I am part of this community. And, yeah. So Well, I love this. I I love the the idea of working on food and wine pairing, staking Italian wine and pairing with other cuisines. I do that a lot in my own, sort of work outside of the podcast, and it is fascinating and to have a group from so many diverse, as you said, Southeast Asian backgrounds, and to do that project together was really cool. It was it was interesting. So now what are you going to do? You're as You know, we know you're doing social media and marketing for wine scholar guild. You're in Dijon. Poor you. It's so terrible. So terrible in Dijon. I don't know how you say it. Yeah. Poor me. But I have no But you have no idea. Like, I mean, burgundy is great for the wine, but not for the weather. Seriously. The weather is not as sunny as it's not as sunny and warm and verona. I'm just so jealous of you guys. I don't know. I don't think we're gonna, convince people to feel sorry for you living your life in burgundy. But, what's what are your next steps? What are you hoping to do? What where do you see your self going now that you've got the title, you're Italian wine ambassador. What do you wanna do with it? Thanks to the community. Like, I I I knew from Amelia back when I was in Taiwan, and now I've traveled. I finished my MBA diploma. And I was just after I received my ping, actually, Emily and I, we had this conversation that we want to for me is that I want to go back, to Taiwan and then to reach out to more people back in Asia, and then I want to teach them about Italian wine. So, basically, that is my goal. I want to teach wine This is fantastic news for me because, of course, you know that we we don't just have the Italian wine Ambassador program at Vini to the International Academy. We also have the Maestro Program. And our our Italian wine ambassadors teach that in their home countries. So you've just opened the door for me, Fiona. I'm gonna grab you and turn you into a Mestro educator because I really would love to see you spreading this news to Taiwan. You're such a good, ambassador. You're perfect for what we want to take this information home and and really make it happen in your own country. That's exciting. Yeah. Like, that's what we want to do. We just want to because Italian wine is just so fascinating. It's just not one grape. It's just not just pinot no. It's not. No. Yeah. It's just so many. And, so for me, that is really my passion. I just love sharing what I know, and I know how to communicate to just, you know, normal people, like, people that maybe because wine is not a daily it's not a day to day drink in our culture. It's always considered as something special, something a bit of a luxury, but I want to, you know, tell them that no. You can just incorporate that into your day to day, live that you can pair muscato, dusty with stinky tofu, and that will be great. I love it. That's fantastic. Yeah. So that's, I think that's what I'm going to do. And hopefully, that's going to happen. Assume enough. What's what's the Italian wine market in Taiwan like? I mean, can you is Italian wine available? Are people interested? Yeah. I mean, there's definitely a lots of interest right now, and I'm just like, in Taiwan, we have this group of Italian wine importers. We have, a group of Italian wine lover enthusiasts. We have also we have a little bit of a Italian one community in Taiwan is very strong, and then we have, wine exhibitions exclusive for it, yeah, for Italian wise. And it's a very it's a small, but very strong community that we have in Taiwan for Italian wines. So there's definitely a lot of interest now and there's getting more. But I I guess, like, for a lot of consumers, when they were introduced to wine, they first started to drink yellow towels. They started to drink a little bit of a a bordeaux wine. But now people, when they are a bit a quentin to wine, they, they they will know that Italian wine. There's just so many things that are just so exciting. Well, I'm thrilled. And I know that, you know, you'll take your enthusiasm and your, you know, brilliant personality and your new Italian wine knowledge and be a huge success as an Italian wine ambassador in Taiwan. So I'm excited to see what you do, and I'm gonna I'm gonna nag you to become a maestro educator. But thank you so much, Fiona, for coming on today. I really am happy to have chatted with you about France and Singapore, Taiwan, and wine. This was a really fun conversation. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, See you soon. I don't know. I don't know where, but, definitely. Somewhere somewhere, our wine pass will cross. So, Chinching Fiona Chow. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening and remember to tune in next Wednesday when I'll be chatting with another fascinating guest. Italian wine podcast is among the leading wine podcasts in the world and the only one with a daily show. Tune in every day and discover all our different shows. 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