The two-weekend summer session class was an intense condensation of the fall class. It ran from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for two Saturdays and Sundays. The class focused on chardonnay and pinot noir and included tastings of five California chardonnays, five white French Burgundies, four sparkling wines, three Champagnes, five California pinot noirs, five French red Burgundies, five more Champagnes, and trips to Storrs and Gatos Locos wineries.

Slater’s class is lighthearted but is devoted to the serious study of wines. She speaks in a soothing manner, almost like a bedtime reading, and rarely, if ever, uses class notes; most of the information comes from her personal knowledge. Slater calls herself a “culinarian.” She is a graduate of Cabrillo’s culinary program (she graduated in ’79 with a degree in Food Service Technology, as it was called then), but, after being turned down on several jobs— women were scarce in restaurant kitchens at that time—Slater decided she needed “more paper” so she attended Le Cordon Bleu, Paris in ’79 and ’80. She then became the first woman to work in Chez les Anges and surprised the chef by succeeding in a tough kitchen environment. The chef thought this young and green American chick would run “crying and screaming” from the restaurant.

  If this community was ever to have a prestigious and widely recognized food and wine program, Cabrillo would be the logical place for it, and Slater—who has been teaching for 20 years— would be the right person to play a major role in that program.

The hardest part about tasting wine in a serious program, where tasting wine at ten in the morning is expected, is swirling the wine in your mouth and then spitting it into a cup. That’s alcohol abuse for sure. But if one expects to make it to lunch, then expectoration is mandatory. Swallowing a little wine awakens all the senses.  At first I could not register much in my sniffing, and little more in my tasting; after a few swallows, the sensors came alive. Lunch came just in the nick of time.

I sense something happening at Cabrillo. I can see the time when Cabrillo becomes a mini-Cordon Bleu or a small Culinary Institute of America. The fall class, Wine & Wine Service, is a prerequisite for the spring World Wines class. Slater hopes to see Cabrillo eventually offer an Associate in Science degree in the field of enology, leading to agreements with schools that offer a Bachelor in Science degree. . “It’s a long way off,” Slater says, “but how can you start anything without a dream?”

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