Museum of Sake Journal Autumn 2015 | Page 4

CONTRIBUTORS JUSTIN LEE, NEW YORK SOMMELIER, ZUMA NEW YORK WWW.ZUMARESTAURANT.COM Justin has been in the hospitality industry for over three years now, working for companies such as Morell Wine and Company at the Rockerfeller, Mario Batali’s Lupa Osteria Romana, and Zuma New York. He has passed his Certified Sommelier of the Court of Master, his Certified Specialist of Wine, Certified Sake Sommelier, and is in the process of finishing up his Wine & Spirits Education Trust Diploma with only one more class to take. HONAMI MATSUMOTO, LONDON FOUNDER, HOUSE OF SAKE Honami Matsumoto is originally from Nagoya in Japan and has been working with sake for nearly 15 years and is a SSI Kikisakeshi-qualified sake sommelier, WSET-certified Sake level 3 educator and an International Wine Challenge (IWC) Panel Judge in the sake category in 2015. Having trained at Leith’s School of Food & Wine and Le Cordon Bleu, Honami is a qualified sommelier and has worked at some of London’s world-renowned restaurants, including Le Gavroche, as well as luxury wine and spirits merchant Hedonism Wines. Honami created House of Sake to provide carefully selected accessories, events, promotion and sake education to the UK and beyond. CHRISTINE PARKINSON, DUBAI GROUP HEAD OF WINE, HAKKASAN GROUP WWW.HAKKASANGROUP.COM @HAKKASANWINE Christine wrote her first restaurant sake list in 2007, and been a sake judge since then. Described as “one of the most creative wine buyers in the UK” by Jancis Robinson MW, she has won numerous awards including ‘IWC Sake Contributor 2012’. In 2013 she launched the first sake course for consumers in the UK, and regularly runs sake training in Hakkasan restaurants worldwide. MUSEUM OF SAKE JOURNAL 4