About Mike Belobradic

Marketer, Brand Strategist, Formally Trained Chef and Wine Virtuoso

I spent 30 years as a marketing and brand executive, most of it building strategy for high-net-worth and affluent audiences at national wealth management institutions and luxury travel. Along the way, I founded Smoke Fire Grill™, trained formally as a chef, earned my WSET wine and spirits credentials, and became a certified KCBS barbecue judge.

Today I bring it all together for wineries, hospitality brands, event producers, and tourism organizations: brand strategy and guest experience design from someone who has run the marketing department and run a kitchen. Affluent audiences don't respond to generic messaging — that's as true for a winery's tasting room as it was for a wealth management client, and it's the same instinct I apply to every brand I work with now.

Where the Credentials Come Together

I didn't want to advise on food and wine experiences from the outside, so I trained for it:

• Culinary Arts Diploma, Liaison College — formal training as a chef, along with 25+ years of live-fire cooking.

• WSET Wine & Spirits — formal training in wine (and spirits) evaluation, pairing, and the wine industry itself.

• KCBS Certified Barbecue Judge — trained and certified to evaluate competitive barbecue against formal technical criteria.

Put together with 30 years of brand strategy work, that's what sets my approach apart: I can build the marketing and guest-experience strategy and personally understand the craft — the food, the fire, and the wine — well enough to design something that holds up to your most discerning guests.

Smoke Fire Grill™ and SFG Wine

This is also what led me to found Smoke Fire Grill™, and to develop the Northern Barbecue™ Method and the SFG Wine framework — a distinct approach to live-fire cooking and wine pairing that draws on global technique from a uniquely Canadian point of view. Wineries, event producers, and hospitality brands work with me to bring this thinking into tastings, guest experiences, and brand activations.

How We Can Work Together

Whether it's developing brand strategy for a winery, designing a guest experience for a hospitality group, providing an audit of your current marketing, or leading a Fire & Wine engaging session for a tourism board or event, my role is the same: strategy, education, and expertise — delivered as a speaker, consultant, or advisor. I don't cook or cater. Where a client wants tastings or food service built around the experience, I will consult directly with your culinary or beverage team on the pairing approach; your own chef or catering partner handles execution.