Karen King
Sales Manager - Winebow Inc.

Karen King worked with the Union Square Hospitality Group for twenty years, during that period she was the wine director at Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern and opened the restaurants as Beverage Director at The Museum of Modern Art. Under Karen’s tutelage Union Square Cafe won the Hudson Valley Foie Gras Outstanding Wine Service Award from the James Beard Foundation.

She has taught wine classes at NYU, the French Culinary Institute, I.C.E., & the American Sommelier Association among others. She has participated in tasting panels for Business Traveler, Wine and Spirits, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times as well as the Aspen Food and Wine Classic. She is an Advanced Sommelier certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers. She was one of the featured sommeliers at the Kapalua Wine and Food Festival.

Sharing information and joy about wine is one of her passions. She is now working with Winebow on the distribution side of the business as a sales manager.

Peter Gomori
Director -
New York Office of the Hungarian National Tourist Office

Peter Gomori is the director of the New York Office of the Hungarian National Tourist Office. This is his third assignment in the US he has served a total of 16 years in this position. He graduated as a teacher of English and German Literature and Linguistics at the Budapest University of Art and Sciences. Following his years as a tour guide in both Hungary and escorting Hungarians to destinations in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US, he finally landed his first assignment with HNTO (then called IBUSZ Hungarian Travel Bureau) back in the early 80’s, as their director for North America.

In addition to positions repeatedly held with HNTO here in the US, between 1997 and 2005 he was partner and managing director of an incoming destination management company in Budapest, catering to international conference, meeting and congress buyers.

He has been married to his wife, Susan, who also is a teacher of English, for 33 years. They have a 15 and 18 year old son, both born in New York.

"If you just count the years I have spent with promoting Hungary and Budapest (my birthplace), you can see it is kind of a lifelong passion with me", says Gomori. "From the years when people here in the States still had a hard time figuring out if Bucharest or Budapest was our capital city (or, for that matter, if Eastern Europe was still in Europe or on an entirely different continent), I have been trying to educate both the trade (all those travel agents who then finally all came to Budapest for their ASTA World Congress in 1988 and put my country on the map) and the consumers about the concept of good times, geography and appearances. First: Geography. Hungary is NOT an Eastern European country (just as Czechs, Slovenians, Croats, Austrians, Slovaks or Poles aren't, either) but is at the heart of CENTRAL EUROPE. Eastern Europe as used for decades was a political idea and has nothing to do with geography. Second: Appearances.

Though generally people do not readily associate ex-Eastern European countries with attractive tourist destinations, the truth is, we are inexpensive (though already members of the EU, not yet on the Euro, making prices palatable), have more five star hotels in Budapest than has neighboring Vienna, the number of hip, modern restaurants with great food and wines is growing every day. Budapest is one of Europe’s most beautiful and romantic cities, bisected by the majestic Danube. A major port on the river, the largest metropolitan area (2 million inhabitants) in the entire area, a cultural hub with two Opera houses, a place with dozens of Turkish and 19th century thermal baths – and the list goes on. So we finally come the third point: good times. For those who have been to Europe but never got past London, Paris, Rome, Berlin and Barcelona – there are few better and more inviting bargains out there. Particularly in combination of other central European cities, like Vienna, and/or Prague. Hungarians know how to live well and are more than happy to teach you, too."

Raul Rothblatt
Director, Composer, Performer, Arts Manager and Partner
- Jumbie Records

Raul is a composer, performer, arts manager and partner of Jumbie Records. He was born in San Francisco and first gained a taste of Hungarian culture through his grandmother, author of Flavors of Hungary, and his mother, who were Holocaust survivors from Budapest. He studied composition at UC Berkeley, the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and the Tisch School of the Arts. Raul has played bass and the percussive cello (utogardon) with Eletfa for 15 years.

As a composer, performer and arts manager, Raul has brought his knowledge of Hungarian folk to the greater New York arts community. As a bandleader, he combines Hungarian folk with West African classical music in his band Dallam-Dougou. In 2003, he co-founded Jumbie Records which promotes innovative/traditional music from West Africa, Hungary and beyond.

Raul lives in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn with his wife Jennifer and 18 month-old daughter Charlotte, who is named after his grandmother.