Host: Tom Powers

Good food, good wine, a night out at a your favorite restaurant. Think you know it all from watching Top Chef? Wrong. Meet sommelier and restaurateur Tommy Powers whose show, “gastrotommy”, gives you the real insider’s perspective – and introduces you to the greatest under-the-radar wine, food and restaurants you’ve never heard of. “Gastrotommy” takes the elitism out of the industry and replaces it with good fun and good times when it flings open the door to this enchanting world. Ah, a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine…. and Tommy.

gastrotommy with Tom Powers

Tom is the leading online expert in the cultural world of food and wine. He began his industry career in 1993 at Marché restaurant in Chicago. By 1998 “Harvest on Huron”, which Tom owned and operated, was named “Best New Restaurant” by The Chicago Tribune. He was prominently featured in Gourmet, Wine Spectator and Crain’s Chicago Business. Then Powers began to focus on fine wine working with Veuve Clicquot and the Italian Wine Merchants. He launched the online site “gastrotommy” in October 2010 with entrepreneur Dan Halfman. “Gastrotommy” has quickly secured a prestigious position within the food and wine community. Evidence of this is his recent work with distinguished sommelier and restaurateur Rajat Parr and the event “California Pinot Noir: In Pursuit of Balance”. “Gastrotommy” the website and “gastrotommy” the podcast continues to provide unique access to artisan purveyors. These communications provide insight into the latest issues, trends and events in the industry. His educational video series will be released in May 2011.

Tom lives in Chicago with his wife Kara, son Michael and their dogs Remi and Simon. He is an avid scuba diver, a horrible golfer and a mischievous late night critter.