Joel’s pre-Beijing life includes his training in the culinary arts back in Montreal, Canada along with several years running exports of various consumer electronics goods. After that,  a long voyage through Asia with the primary goal of eating finally comes to an end in Beijing. A dangerous focus on food leads to a great access for language study, further paving the way for a great new complementary obsession: Chinese tea. Within a very short while, all traces of consumer electronics export have been entirely replaced with sourcing the best of the best Chinese teas for his company Anjing Teas. Five years later, the food, tea and language all mix for an important foundation of Joel’s involvement at the Hutong. Here he is responsible for leading numerous tea-arts learning and tea touring programs, as well as various cooking classes and catering for events at the Hutong.  When Joel isn’t at home cooking, he is most certainly serving tea and cooking at the Hutong.