Batman has Robin.
Peanut butter has jelly.
Taylor has Selena.
And in the local hospitality scene, top chefs have a seasoned sommelier.
Though many have heard the term “sommelier,” few understand the depth of their duties. Certainly, as the restaurant’s resident wine professional, the sommelier offers diners recommendations on pairing wine with dishes. Beyond this, however, they work with distributors, winemakers, and the resident chef to build comprehensive wine programs—often also overseeing sake, cava, spirits, aperitifs, and other beverages—for venues based on their cuisine, aesthetic, and flavor profiles, some hand-selecting hundreds or thousands of vintages or varietals a year. They also collaborate with chefs on seasonal and one-off events, and some even host workshops and classes to teach others how to understand their own palates, as everyone’s differ.
The Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) has four levels that wine professionals can attain, with the first level recommending at least three years of on-the-job training and requiring that one pass a practical wine service test. The second and third levels—called Certified and Advanced, respectively—require several years of training and rigorous testing over multiple days. The final level—called the Master—is the equivalent to earning a doctorate in wine service and takes well over a decade to attain.
Here are four stories of sommeliers and their chefs, each coming to a meeting of the minds to elevate not only their restaurants but also the entirety of Arizona’s culinary scene, one dish and glass at a time.
Chef Brent Menke and Sommelier Jeff Menzer, The Mick
While Brent Menke neither intended to become a chef nor launch his own eatery, fate had other plans. The Arizona native got his start in hospitality after college as a deckhand on a yacht. While traveling the world, he eventually moved from swabbing the decks to bosun, a key leadership role. But everything changed in the late 1990s, when his yacht chef departed and the boat needed help in the kitchen. Menke volunteered to lend a hand and quickly fell in love with cooking. By 1999, he was accepted into the Culinary Institute of America.
Over the next two decades, Menke won the hearts and taste buds of the discerning palates on mega-yachts around the world. He also cooked privately for a who’s who of famed (yet confidential) guests and ran an East Coast farm-to-table operation before moving back to Arizona in 2016.
By 2019, Menke opened The Mick Brasserie with dishes inspired by his travels. Despite COVID, the eatery thrived because of Menke’s talents and a key hire in Jeff Menzer.
The veteran sommelier was already well-regarded on the East Coast but relatively new to the Valley. Menzer created a mouthwatering wine menu in short order that has been honored by Wine Spectator, but beyond that, Menke and Menzer co-host wine-pairing dinners nearly weekly, always with a custom menu and mind-blowing varietals, and twice annually put on large-scale, multi-week wine dinner competitions. The current series—World Cup of Wine—has its finale events Oct. 7 and 21, respectively, with tickets now available.
Chef Benjamin Wald and Sommelier Robert Weyers, Café Monarch and Reserve
How high are diners’ expectations of Café Monarch? Over the past five years, the dreamy, dimly lit fine-dining experience has been named among the most romantic restaurants in the country by Trip Advisor, Open Table, and more. The challenge only fuels executive chef Benjamin Wald—who also leads Café Monarch’s ultra-high-end sister concept across the street, The Reserve—and his team. No stranger to lofty expectations, after graduating from the award-winning culinary program at Johnson & Wales University, Wald worked under celebrity chef and epicurean icon Alain Ducasse, who has nearly two dozen Michelin Stars, at L'ecole in Paris.
When dining at Café Monarch or Reserve, expect a prix fixe tasting menu for the ages paired with some of the top wines available in the state. How serious are the wine programs? Every single server is trained through the Court of Master Sommeliers to ensure they are ably suited to help select the ideal vintage to pair with each of Wald’s inventive, often interactive, dishes.
A guest favorite member of this team is Robert Weyers, a Scottsdale native and five-year veteran of Café Monarch. On any given day, Weyers begins his morning by pouring (literally and figuratively) over Wald’s ever-changing menu, creating multiple pairing suggestions for each course to ensure all guests’ palates are pleased. By the time service comes around, he has an arsenal of artisanal domestic and international offerings ranging from his personal favorite wine in chardonnay to varietals running the gamut from white Burgundy to cabernet franc at the ready, each one tasting better than that next when paired with Wald’s edible art.
Chef Yulissa Acosta and Sommelier Jim Gallen, Hearth ’61 at Mountain Shadows
In 2023, Yulissa Acosta was named chef de cuisine of Hearth ’61 at Mountain Shadows after impressing leadership and diners alike as a valued member of the kitchen since 2017. In the time since, she has focused on letting seasonal ingredients inspire her rustic, modern American dishes, all of which are prepared in a bright open-air kitchen.
Her road to the kitchen began earlier than most. Though she has called the Valley home since age 4, she was born in Mexico and her family had a traditional Hispanic household where everyone was expected to help in the kitchen. After cementing her love of cooking while taking a culinary arts elective in high school, she was accepted into Arizona’s Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), excelling so quickly that she was hired on at Bink’s Midtown at just 17, getting the chance to learn from award-winning chefs Kevin Binkley and Brandon Gauthier before she moved onto Mirabel Golf Club and then Hearth ’61.
Acosta loves nothing more than showcasing local ingredients, notably from McClendon's Select, Duncan Family Farms, Crow's Dairy, and Two Wash Ranch, and seeing how resort sommelier Jim Gallen pairs them with their 3,000-bottle inventory of wines. To say the duo works in lockstep is an understatement. In addition to leading the wine program, Gallen also serves as the food and beverage manager for the entirety of the resort. As such, in addition to partnering with Acosta on the primary menu and a slew of special events, Gallen also leads Champagne education programs on property, which culminate with bottle sabering, and a wine pairing dinner program nicknamed the “Sunday Supper.”
Chef Christopher Gross and Sommelier Jodi Bronchtein, Christopher’s at Wrigley Mansion
Chefs do not come much bigger or bolder than James Beard Award–winner Christopher Gross. His career highlights include cooking for multiple U.S. presidents as well as with Julia Child and Martha Stewart and ownership of a slew of nationally lauded eateries in Arizona before opening the awe-inspiring Christopher’s at Wrigley Mansion in 2021. A free-standing architectural marvel built adjacent to the iconic Wrigley Mansion, Christopher’s offers the ultimate bucket list dining experience through tasting menus that showcase Wagyu, truffles, and foie gras in all their decadent glory while also delighting Chef Christopher’s longtime fans with dishes from his most popular menus of all time. The sleek eatery does not employ servers, instead having its chefs—Christopher included—bring dishes to the table course after course, giving a first-person account of the love, technique, and creativity that goes into each dish.
Given this, Jodi Bronchtein has her work cut out for her.
The advanced sommelier, who also holds the WSET 3 certification and is pursuing her master’s theory exam and WSET diploma, is more than up for it. Bronchtein not only leads the wine program at Christopher’s, but she is also the wine director at the Wrigley Mansion, including oversight of similarly impressive programs at Geordie’s Restaurant, Jamie’s Wine Bar, and all special events on property.
A yin to Chef Christopher’s oft-wild yang that has been setting the culinary world on fire across the country since 2011, Bronchtein has curated a mind-blowing list of wines from around the world that is currently topping 2,600, and she is also working with Chef on plans for a January 2025 wine festival on property, among other special events.
By 2019, Menke opened The Mick Brasserie with dishes inspired by his travels ... the eatery thrived because of Menke’s talents and a key hire in Jeff Menzer.
On any given day, Weyers begins his morning by pouring (literally and figuratively) over Wald’s ever-changing menu, creating multiple pairing suggestions for each course to ensure all guests’ palates are pleased.