About Us
WELCOME TO CORK + BOARD
The culinary chronicles of a sommelier and chef.
We love to cook. We love food. We cook for ourselves, we cook for our families, we cook for our friends. In our experience, the breaking of bread and sharing of a meal with the people you care about can only be enhanced by the perfect beverage. We pair to create a peak experience. Food and beverages go hand-in-hand, each bringing greater enjoyment to one another. Drink is inseparable from food. Drink is the final garnish to a dish.
SOMMELIER + CHEF
Food is our ongoing conversation.
We should have met long ago. It’s bizarre that we didn’t. For seven years we lived blocks away from each other, never meeting. We both cook professionally, have mutual friends and yet somehow our culinary and social circles never overlapped. Serendipity intervened. We finally met through a mutual friend and fellow food enthusiast who owns the fabulous kitchen essentials store where we both now cook and teach about food and wine.
JOSIE PONTARELLI
CHEF
I graduated from the Stratford Chefs School in 1999 and achieved Red Seal Certification shortly thereafter. With this strong foundation laid, an opportunity to spend time in California presented itself. While there, I was intoxicated by the seasonality and quality of the ingredients everywhere I looked. This experience proved to be a turning point for me in how I thought about food. It inspired me to have a deep and enduring respect for the people, food and culture that go into the perfect dish.
CHRISTIE POLLARD
SOMMELIER
After 10 years as a restaurateur, culinary instructor and caterer, a trip to France sparked an untapped enthusiasm for all things wine. I gave up the restaurant life, made a huge u-turn and dove head first into the vast world of wine. I have never looked back and achieved my Sommelier certification with the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers in 2015. I love sharing my pursuit of the perfect pairing in a fun, unfussy and ultimately delicious way with my friends, family and those I teach.
All recipes, food styling, photography and pairings are our own creations.
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Thank you for stopping by our blog.
Cheers and eat up!
Josie and Christie