Monte Mathews is a food, wine and travel writer based in New York City. Born in Montreal, Canada, Monte comes from a traveling family. His grandfather ran Canadian Pacific Hotels — those great "chateau" hotels that crossed Canada from Victoria to Halifax.

Though Monte has never equaled his grandfather's six months a year on the road, he has traveled to six continents, visited 43 countries and is fluent in three languages. His passion is for culinary and wine travel which feeds into his blog's tagline: "If I can cook it, you can cook it and I'll travel the world to bring it back home to you." Monte's blog can be found at Chewing the Fat.

He's delighted to be contributing to Travel-Wise and looks forward to bringing you on his next great adventure: Bali and a culinary cruise to the Philippines.