Chez Dad

Rosetta Costantino is an Oakland-based cooking teacher who specializes in the cuisine of Calabria. I was lucky enough to discover her cookbooks and instagram videos towards the start of the pandemic and have found them to be an ideal antidote to a year or two of stir crazy covid apartment living.

During this conversation, we cover the history of Calabria, her family's journey to oakland, her mindblowing garden, and how to cook an eggplant properly. We ran into some audio issues towards the beginning so please excuse any background noise.

We're in the middle of apple season here in the Bay Area, and it feels like an ideal time to finally share this conversation with Stan Devoto, apple grower extraordinaire, which we recorded earlier this year.

I’ve been buying apples from Stan’s orchard in Sebastopol for years, and I’ve been looking forward to having a more in depth conversation with him. We cover the economics of organic farming, climate change, the gravenstein's legacy, grafting, and much more.

Tony Coturri has been making low intervention, "natural" wines, whatever you want to call them, for decades, long before the natty movement took off in the US.

I spoke to Tony in February, a year into the pandemic, and later came back to help with some bottling (by hand, of course). I was struck by his candor and generosity during this conversation. I can think of few better stewards of the history of winemaking in the Sonoma Valley. Plus, he's a great storyteller to boot.

We covered a lot of ground here, including:

• Learning to make wine from his grandfather in a basement in the Marina
• His perspective on a changing Sonoma, from the days of the Italian-Swiss Colony to bonafide winemaking region
• How he approaches the craft of winemaking, from the vineyard to the cellar
• What on earth is a qvevri and how do you pronounce that exactly
• What is a true California wine? And why is it Zinfandel?
• His legacy ahead of his final harvest this year

You can find Tony's wines in the Bay Area at bottle shops like Ordinaire and Ruby or reach out to him through his website to order directly.

Bonjour and welcome to the Chez Dad podcast. My name is Trafton Kenney and I’m a cook based in Oakland, California. This interview project builds on the conversations I’ve had with farmers, winemakers, and artisans I’ve met through my humble supper club here in the Bay Area. The idea is to go a bit deeper with thoughtful discussions around these producers’ stories, craft, and the little details that make up their work.