Thursday, April 21, 7:00 pm
Members $90, guests $115

The food of northern California has become so inextricably linked to the superb wines made there that imagining the landscape without its wine country is much like imagining a world of food without wine. Nowhere is this relationship clearer than at St. Francis Winery and Vineyards, where chef Todd Muir takes a different approach to food and wine pairings. He doesn’t search for wines to pair with his cooking; rather, he looks at the wine palette he has to work with before he even begins to dream up its perfect culinary match.

A native Californian, Todd Muir has been surrounded by the Sonoma wine country most of his professional life. His culinary career began at a pancake house when he was 17 years old, an experience that sparked his interest in becoming a professional chef. He trained at the California Culinary Academy and, after graduation, took a turn as an apprentice at Alice Water’s renowned Chez Panisse. In 1981, Muir’s family bought the historic Madrona Manor in Healdsburg, California, giving the young chef the opportunity to design and open the hotel’s restaurant. There, he was able to grow his own herbs and vegetables and to develop his cooking style, which he describes as French-Californian with a Sonoma flair. Under Muir’s watchful eye, the hotel was given five stars by the Press Democrat and a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.

In 2001, St. Francis Winery opened a new visitors’ center and set out on a search for a chef who could seamlessly pull together St. Francis wines and regional produce to create locally inspired dishes. Their search ended with Todd Muir. With his knowledge of wine and food pairings, the Sonora-bred chef was a natural choice. Now, in addition to serving as chef to the St. Francis tasting room, Muir heads up the wine and food education offerings at the visitors’ center.

Joining Muir at the House will be St. Francis’s chief operating officer, Christopher Silva. Silva, a fifth-generation Sonoman, attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles before returning to Sonoma to represent wineries. He married into the St. Francis family in 1992, and joined the management team at the vineyard in 1998.