In my last blog post I talked about Sunset Savor the Central Coast, specifically about the new Opening Night event as well as the Sunday Main Event. Side note on that, you have until midnight TODAY to get into both of those events for $100.Mat
Today, through my cool connections at Solterra Strategies, I’m able to continue with more Sunset Savor fun via a Q&A with author (Kitchen Gypsy) and chef Joanne Weir, who will be at Savor on Opening Night as well as both Main Event days doing seminars. If you don’t know who she is you can learn more here. All I can say is she has quite the resume including the fact that she’s a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and international cooking teacher.
Let’s jump right in. Here’s my Q&A with Chef Joanne Weir:
Matt: What person, dish, or experience set you on the path of making food a career?
Joanne: My mother. When I was 6 years old, she wanted to make me a tomato sandwich and I turned up my nose. All my friends were eating PB and J sandwiches. She went out to the garden and picked a perfect tomato and brought it into the kitchen. She toasted homemade bread, spread it with homemade mayonnaise. She sliced the tomato and placed a few tomatoes on top of the mayonnaise and sprinkled them with salt. She said “Whenever you eat tomatoes, they need salt. It brings out the acidity and sweetness.” As a little kid, I remember saying to myself, ‘What am I going to do with that information?”
I took a bite of the sandwich and thought I’d died and gone to tomato heaven. Thus a chef was born.
Matt: Do you have a favorite dish or style of food?
Joanne: Anything made with olive oil, anything from the Mediterranean, anything with vegetables and lots of them.
Matt: What’s the best piece of advice you ever received in regards to food/ cooking?
Joanne: Don’t be afraid of salt! It brings out the flavor in food.
Matt: What do you see being a new trend in food/ cooking over the next 5 years?
Joanne: Healthy and fresh food with more attention paid to where and how ingredients are produced. My grandfathers were both farmers and finally we are returning to some of the same principles which they lived by.
Matt: What do you think about Sunset Savor the Central Coast?
Joanne: I’ve heard so much about this event and I’m so excited to be a part of it. I love food and wine and this region has some of the best in California. What’s not to love!?
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