Thomas Price

The Climb

Restaurant ownership was the first register of the trade for Thomas Price until 2012, and that footing matters. Working from the ground up in restaurant(s), he learned hospitality as labor, routine, and responsibility before it became language or instruction. The career that followed carries that base layer: practical service first, then broader oversight and teaching. Wine education became the next field of practice in 2012, when Thomas Price moved into the role of director of wine education at Jackson Family Wines in Sonoma from 2012. The shift widened the scope of the work without changing its center. In place of the dining room, the classroom and the trade floor became the sites where wine knowledge was organized, explained, and passed on. Since 2022, Thomas Price has served as Master Sommelier in Residence of 1856 – Culinary Residence and as instructor, HOSP 4600: Beverage Appreciation of Auburn University Wine Appreciation Center. The academic setting gives structure to a career built in service, while the title of Master Sommelier keeps the standard anchored in professional practice. His work now sits between hospitality and instruction, with wine as the common thread.

Today

Master Sommelier in Residence at 1856 – Culinary Residence in Auburn, Alabama, is the current frame for Thomas Price’s work. The position reflects a career shaped by repetition, discipline, and the accumulation of knowledge over time.

In Their Words “I was always welcome in hospitality and worked through all the back of the house positions.” “I started as a dishwasher at 13, had no parents by age 15, and raised myself working in restaurants.” Those lines describe a formation rooted in restaurant labor. The craft here is not abstract: it is built through every position taken on, every shift learned, and every part of the house crossed in order to keep moving forward.

Recognition

Thomas's honors include Master Sommelier certification; first Black American to achieve the certification (2012). That distinction places the 2012 certification within a larger professional record, marking both the credential itself and the historical significance of who earned it.