Friends, Food, and a Glass of Wine

Most students who serve as waiters in the Rice Faculty Club take the job as a way to earn money while in school. Belinda Chang ’96, however, had other motives.

Belinda Chang

“I was dating Kevin Timson, the singer for Venus in Furs,” explains Chang, who studied biochemistry at Rice, “and he worked at Cohen House.” The relationship with Timson didn’t last, but a new passion captivated Chang. “I loved working at the Faculty Club,” she says. “I started as a server, and by my junior year, I was head waiter. Manager Rick Gaido and Chef Cari Clark were great role models for me.”

While working formal parties and fancy Rice events, Chang realized that the restaurant business might be the career for her. “Cooking is such a labor of love,” she says, “and like my parents, I loved dinner parties and loved feeding my friends. I thought that a career as a chef would make sense for me.”

Clark suggested that before Chang invest in culinary school, she work in a restaurant kitchen. “Cari had been at Café Annie before coming to Rice,” Chang says, “and she sent me there. I started as an unpaid intern in the kitchen and worked my way up to dining room captain.” About that time, she began considering becoming a sommelier. “They had a fabulous wine list at Café Annie,” she says, “and Robert Del Grande has a great love and respect for wine, which rubbed off on me.”

Initially, Chang’s parents weren’t happy with her career change. “They didn’t get it at first,” she laughs. “There aren’t many sommeliers in Chinese restaurants, and they thought I’d chosen a career serving cokes or something. It took a few years for them to reconcile with my career choice.”

During her time at Café Annie, Chang noticed that The Wine Spectator named Charlie Trotter’s, located in her hometown of Chicago, the world’s best restaurant for food and wine. “If I want to be serious about this restaurant thing,” she thought, “I should work there next.”

She wrote Trotter a letter, and two hours after she faxed it, she was called to set up an interview. She got the job, not realizing how intense it would be. “Working at Charlie Trotter’s is like pursuing a difficult and intense PhD,” Chang says. “Charlie loves the Bulls, and I guess it was like working for Michael Jordan. We were not allowed to make mistakes or lose. I spent five tough years there, learning more than I’d ever learned.”

While Chang was at Charlie Trotter’s, national and international journalists began to praise her skills as a sommelier. There are two chapters devoted to her wine service in Lessons in Service by E. Lawler, and she wrote the widely praised wine notes for Charlie Trotter’s Meat and Game. The restaurant continued to receive Wine Spectator’s highest accolade—the Grand Award—and the Trotter service team even won the James Beard Award for Best Service, which is the restaurant business equivalent of an Oscar. Chang also appeared in a few episodes of Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter on PBS.

Chang left Trotter’s to investigate the San Francisco restaurant scene and to work with Chef Laurent Gras at the Fifth Floor. “Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet Magazine, said that he was the most talented working chef in the country, so I wanted to work with him next,” Chang explains. “I spent two years running the restaurant and the wine program there.” She was named one of San Francisco’s “Top 20 People Under 40,” nominated for the James Beard Wine Service Award, and in 2004, won the coveted honor of San Francisco Magazine Editor’s Choice Wine Director of the Year.

After Chef Gras moved back to New York City, Chang returned to Chicago once more to work with another great chef, Rick Tramonto, but when Osteria Via Stato opened soon after, she joined its staff. “I have loved every moment of planning, constructing, and executing our vision of this restaurant,” she says. “It’s a far cry from what I’ve done before—Fifth Floor, Charlie Trotter’s, and Café Annie are pretty fancy places, but OVS is so cool. All my restaurant snob friends have a great time hanging out in this casual Italian joint where the food is simple and delicious, and the wine list is serious but fun.”

Chang’s secret in dealing with restaurant-goers, both those who know wine and those who don’t, is simple and personal. “I put myself in their shoes,” she says. “From my Rice days, I have been an avid, maybe obsessive, restaurant goer. I loved dining at Churassco’s, Café Annie, Anthony’s, La Strada, and so forth, and I hated being treated badly by snotty waiters because I was young or was a relative novice. I treat guests like I want to be treated: with respect and a sense of fun.”

In developing a wine list, Chang knows that it is important for the list to fit the cuisine and philosophy of the restaurant, but she also strives to make it unintimidating for the novice as well as exciting for the connoisseur. “It’s a much more challenging way to create a list.” she says. “But it’s worked for me so far.”

Chang doesn’t have a favorite vintage. “I want a different wine with every dish, every season, every mood, and every friend,” she says. The regions that she has explored lately are Sicily and Basilicata in Italy, Rheingau in Germany, Jumilla in Spain, and Burgundy. “I will always be into Burgundy,” she says. “But if I had to limit myself to only one type of wine for the rest my life, it would be Champagne. Bubbles rule!”

—Christopher Dow