“When you learn about wine, in your mind and imagination you travel. You try to put yourself in, say, Argentina or South Africa,” says Plateau's head sommelier, Tomasz Kuszneruk, who joined the restaurant in 2010. “Learning about wine isn’t just about that particular grape; it’s the whole culture of that region – the food, climate, the temperament of the people there.”

Tomasz grew up in Lublin, Poland, where he studied to become an engineer. He moved to London in 2001 to look for employment and found instead that his experience as a waiter in Poland led to work at Vinopolis.

While there, he developed a strong interest and love for wine, and began studying at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. His next move was to try and learn more about French wine at Coq D’Argent.

“For beginners, French wine is always iconic. The wine law is also more difficult to understand, so I decided to go and work for a French restaurant,” he says.

As part of Olivier Marie’s team at Coq d'Argent, Tomasz was appointed to assistant head sommelier, where he found his technical brain and attention to detail served him well.