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when you dine at Ray’s & Stark Bar—which is located in the lower atrium of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—one of the menus your server will hand you will be a multi-page booklet of different kinds of water. You may, for a minute, think you've landed in an episode of Portlandia—what ever happened to “still or sparkling?”
There are bottles from France, Norway, Fiji, Germany and the United States, all neatly lined up, from flat to sparkling, ready to be poured for a water tasting.
In case it's not clear, Riese is crazy about H20. He's taking the clear liquid most of us take for granted as a simple necessity and attempting to turn it into a serious business.
Riese was certified as a water sommelier after taking a weeklong course in Germany at Doemen's, one of a few schools in the world that offers certification for water specialists, but he insists he was largely self-trained by tasting
He's worked at Michelin star restaurants all over the world and in 2005, he introduced a 40-label water menu at a German restaurant. He also wrote a book in 2009 about water and his knowledge on the subject earned him a special O-1 visa to live and work in the United States from Germany, awarded to individuals with extraordinary abilities and typically given to scientists and inventors.
"All waters have unique tastes, and a lot of Americans think water is just water, but I completely don't believe in that," said Riese. "Water has so many interesting nuances."
originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
Sounds like the Penn and Teller episode were they spoofed such idioctic notions about bottled water.
My favorite one their 'sommelier' brought out was Agua de Culo.
originally posted by: Yeahkeepwatchingme
So you're going to pay more money for water? What morons. People like him are one of the reasons why our descendents will have to pay an arm and a leg to get just a cup of water.
I think if there is any knock here, it's on the pretentious folks who think it makes a huge difference and will pay top dollar for the mineral content of water from this or that place in the world.
originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
while the role of water sommalier is dumb, water is a very complex beverage with a wide variety of natural tastes present in varying degrees.
The best water I ever had was a Brazillian spring water that was served as Texas de Brazil in Ft Worth. It was phenomenal.
Think about that: i am an avowed carnivore. But walked away from a churrascaria raving not about the steady supply of exquisitely prepared meats....but about the water.