Who is this guy? 
Who is this guy?
Director of Food and Beverage, journalist, and radio personality Michael A. Cimino (a former musician and certified Wine Captain with the Sommelier Society of America) is a professional restaurant consultant. Mr. Cimino is currently the the owner/instructor of Cottage Views School of Wine as well as a volunteer at Rockland World Radio. com, where he occasionally hosts Cottage Views Classic Rock Music Hour.
[Employers: For Professional Resume Click Here]
Restaurant manager, and
journalist, Michael A. Cimino is currently a Wine Captain with the Sommelier
Society of America and a professional restaurant consultant.
To his friends he is a “certifiable Rock Musicologist.”
Mr. Cimino, who grew up in an Italian-American household in the sixties,
was encouraged to take piano lessons and learn “serious” music and by the
age of eight Master Cimino was seriously studying the cymbal crashes of the 1812
Overture with the local school orchestra. By
the age of twelve he had learned his fathers trade of working steel, at fourteen
was initiated into the food service industry by the maternal side of his family,
and at sixteen mastered the entire encyclopedia of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
As a young man, Mr. Cimino pursued a career in the restaurant business
while continuing to satisfy his craving for collecting, and inspecting,
recordings of all kinds. He finally consummated his affinity with the music business
by receiving a diploma from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 1987 and
landing his first of several positions in suburban New York radio.
Mr. Cimino’s abundant knowledge of music history made him a shoe-in for
conducting interviews with various musicians for Westchester’s WZFM, Rockland
County’s WRKL, and Orange County’s WKOJ.
During this time he had the opportunity to produce a documentary on his
childhood heroes, Badfinger, and work with Rock legends Crosby, Stills, and
Nash, as well as interview Folk legends Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio.
His local celebrity also led to the publication of his first articles in
the New York Review of Records, No Matter What – The official Badfinger
Fanzine, and local paper The Germ.
Following the homogenization of New York Radio, Mr. Cimino returned to
the restaurant industry on a full-time basis and received a Wine Captain diploma
from the Sommelier Society of America in 1993.
That same year he founded Cottage Views Classic Rock News and won acclaim
from the international music community with poignant reviews and interviews with
legendary Rock musicians, including The Kinks’ Davies brothers, the late
bassists John Entwistle (The Who) and Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix Experience), The Beatles’ original drummer Pete
Best, and dozens more.
After more than ten years of publication to print, over two hundred
articles, and an association with England’s Rock Society magazine, Cottage
Views was transformed into an electronic newsletter and is maintained by the
official website www.cottageviews.com,
which was designed by Mr. Cimino himself.
In February of 2000 the New York Times hailed Mr. Cimino as a "master of accommodating guests and selecting wines," and he went on to speak at WOR Radio's annual Taste of New York alongside celebrity chefs Lydia Bastianich and John Halligan. He was appointed General Manager of the Park Steakhouse in 2004 and went on to win both the Award of Distinction (Wine Enthusiast) and the Award of Excellence (Wine Spectator) for the design of their wine list. In 2006 Mr. Cimino founded the Cottage Views School of Wine, utilizing the private dining room of the Lighthouse on the Hudson in Piermont, NY, where he personally instructed the classes. He was, once again, awarded by Wine Enthusiast for his work with the Lighthouse, and went on to design a new wine list for Restaurant Association chapter president Chef Anthony Mingone of Romolo's, in Congers, NY. He is currently the Director of Food and Beverage for Arcola Country Club, one of the nations' most exclusive private country clubs.
He continues to contribute to
Rock Society and sporadically hosts an Internet radio show
Cottage Views Classic Rock Music Hour on www.RocklandWorldRadio.com.
His current writing projects include The Wait Person’s Guide to
Understanding Fine Wine and Badfinger and Beyond - The Authorized Biography of
Joey Molland.
For more information please contact Mr. Cimino at cottageviews@aol.com.
photo of M. A. Cimino at WRKL copyright protected by Michael Cimino Archives