Eating for a Living

I have always had a discerning palate. While most eight year olds want Chucky Cheese pizza for their birthday, I wanted lobster with white truffle oil. This characteristic has proven very beneficial to me. I spend much of the year flying around the world judging cheese and wine competitions.

My day job used to be as a taster for Brach’s Candy. It’s important for large corporations that make food products to have consistency. The Budweiser beer made in January in Jacksonville should taste the same as the beer made in November in St. Louis. Brach’s candies all have their own signature flavor, and it was my job to ensure that each batch of candy met the company’s taste standards. It’s not uncommon for the opinion of a taster (or as we in the industry call them “suckers”) to cause companies to destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars of product.

In the late 1990s, I was at the peak of my profession, and Jelly Belly offered me a six-figure salary to become their taster. I quit my job at Brach’s and moved to Fairfield, California to start my new career. Then Jelly Belly rescinded the job offer. They said it was because the funding evaporated, but I think they didn’t want to hire someone with a notorious name like mine, even if I didn’t do anything to make my name infamous.

It turns out that I didn’t need the money anyway. I’d written an autobiography a few years before then as a diversion on international flights to wine festivals. Suddenly, the book was flying off the shelves. The publisher had a second, then third and fourth printing. Everyone wanted a copy of “The Life of a World Famous Sucker” by Monica Lewinsky.