The NorCal Public Media Food & Wine Awards 2022

NOMINATE HEROES THAT YOU KNOW! 

The 2024 NorCal Public Media Food & Wine Awards will take place on Saturday, March 30, 2024. 

Nominations are now open

for our 2024 Award Winners!

We invite you to nominate heroes that you know. We’re looking for dedicated leaders in:

• Sustainability in our Bay Area agriculture, wine and viticulture industries,
• Bay Area foundations and philanthropists making a difference for the environment, land, animals and people,
• Biodiverse and regenerative farmers, farm-focused restaurants and artisan food producers,
• People or organizations getting food to people who need it,
• and people or organizations working for improved ag workers' rights and conditions.

You can nominate as many Heroes as you'd like - click the button below to start nominating your heroes!

If you have questions about the nomination process, please reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The deadline for nominations is September 30, 2023. An independent committee will review all nominations and we’ll announce our 2024 Award Winners over the next few months.


LAST YEAR’S FOOD & WINE AWARD WINNERS
 

GRAND AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP:

Alice Waters

Alice Waters is a chef, author, food activist, and the founder of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley (est. 1971). She has been a champion of local sustainable agriculture for over four decades. In 1995 she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, which advocates for a free regenerative organic school lunch for all children and a sustainable food curriculum in every public school.

In 2015 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, proving that eating is a political act. Alice is the author of sixteen books including her most recent We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto.
 
WINE WORLD GAME CHANGERS:
 
Nova Cadamatre, MW--Trestle Thirty One wines, Snowshell Vineyards, Fiadh Ruadh wines

A winemaker with a wide and diverse background, Nova Cadamatre is the first female winemaker in the U.S. to achieve the title of Master of Wine.

She has worked at top Napa wineries, focused on Bordeaux and Burgundian varieties from some of the top vineyards in the area including To Kalon, Vine Hill Ranch, MacDonald, Detert, and Hyde Vineyard. She now teaches at Cornell University and is a bicoastal winemaker of her own brands in New York state and California.
  
 
 Julie Lumgair--JL Wine Consulting, Art Nouveau Wine
 
Julie Lumgair is a noted consulting and hands-on luxury tier winemaker. Her ongoing wine trials, experiments and wine judging have been featured in industry press and conferences.
 
Julie also loves her work as an educational speaker for consumers and trade groups, each topped up with a heavy dose of science and Southern hospitality. She serves on several industry boards and leadership teams focused on growing quality, sustainability and community.
 
 
 Bettina Sichel–Laurel Glen Vineyard
 
Bettina Sichel is the fifth generation of the Sichel family to work in the wine business. In 2011, she became the steward of Laurel Glen Vineyard after purchasing the iconic estate from founder Patrick Campbell in partnership with a small group of wine lovers. Once considered one of the great Cabernets of California, Laurel Glen Vineyard became the next chapter of Bettina’s career when she turned her skills and dedication to rebuilding its quality and reputation.
 
 
 
 
 Dr. Anita Oberholster--University of California Davis, Enology & Viticulture

Anita Oberholster completed her Ph.D. in Wine Sciences at the University of Adelaide, in Australia in 2008. At UC Davis, Anita brings research and developments from the Department of Viticulture and Enology to the wine industry and continually interacts with its vineyard and winery professionals on best practices. She has led research efforts on smoke taint and its mitigation in grapes and wine, on winery sanitation, Red Blotch Virus, the use of new technologies and ‘green’ chemicals in the winery, and the re-use of winery wastewater for the irrigation of vines.

 
FARM-TO-COMMUNITY LEADERS:
 
Duskie Estes--Executive Director, Farm to Pantry: Cultivating Community Through Healthy Food

Farm to Pantry rescues food and gets it to those in our community who are hungry. Since 2008, Farm to Pantry has delivered over 5 million servings of nutritious, locally-grown produce that might otherwise have gone to waste. They help struggling small farms, build community gardens, and train volunteers about gleaning, gardening and feeding their community.

Duskie Estes became its Executive Director after two decades of dedication to ethical sourcing and advocacy for small farmers in her farm-to-table restaurant, ZAZU Kitchen+Farm and her meat company, Black Pig Meat Co. A graduate of Brown University, Estes’s career has included critical acclaim as well as television appearances on Food Network and PBS.
 
Kyle and Katina Connaughton—Single Thread Farm and Restaurant

Committed to biodiverse ecosystems on their farms in Sonoma County, carrying over to a Michelin-starred plant-based restaurant on the 2022 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Kyle and Katina Connaughton grow everything local from vegetables to tea to honey to flowers both edible and decorative and offer much of it on the menu seasonally at their restaurant, Single Thread, in Healdsburg, California.

 
Deborah Bertolucci--Superintendent Geyserville Schools, Head of the Geyserville Career Technical Education (CTE) program and the Geyserville New Tech Academy

The small Sonoma county town of Geyserville is on its way to a fully-funded program and site for outdoor classrooms, farming, science and technical programs for students with a farm-to-table kitchen, farmer’s market and community center.

As Deborah says when she describes these programs she has guided into life, “After studying conventional agriculture, embracing 21st-century science, skills and methods, and recognizing the importance of working symbiotically with nature, our students will be ready to lead the next generation of California farmers and ranchers.”

  
AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY, REGENERATION
AND WORKER'S RIGHTS:
 
Susan and Lou Preston—Preston Farm and Winery

Artist Susan Preston and husband Lou farm a 125-acre parcel in the Dry Creek Valley in what they call a “50-year dalliance” with nature. From organic grapes and wine production, they moved to make the farm biodiverse with olives, stone fruit, apples, vegetables, nuts, grains, pasture, hedgerows, sheep, and chickens. Lou bakes bread, makes kraut and pickles, and Susan is the culinary mother of the farm.

Soil building and the tending of multiple crops and animals side-by-side, restoring native habitats on the creeks, keeping some areas wild instead of cultivated, leads to the balance of nature they seek and makes their organic practices more successful. Their multicultural approach to land stewardship is mirrored in the Prestons’ support for culture and community with on-farm youth programs, you-pick and gleaning days, oral history presentations.

The family is dedicated to biodiverse natural systems and practices for the sustained enjoyment of the land for future generations. Susan’s unique contributions include her soon-to-be published “Forgotten Women,”  a celebratory salute to her life’s formative acquaintances through painting and prose.

 
Lynda Hopkins--Sonoma County District Supervisor for the Russian River and the Sonoma Coast

Educated at Stanford University in Earth and ocean sciences, mass transit, land use policy and communications, Hopkins lives in Sonoma County and owns Foggy River Farm with her husband Emmett.

As Executive Director of Sonoma County Farm Trails, she worked with dozens of family farmers to help keep small-scale farming viable.

As Board Secretary of Farm to Pantry, she has helped manage an organization that moved over 100 tons of gleaned farm-fresh produce to those in need and shepherded the organization into its current 501(c)3 status.

As a member of the Leadership Circle of Community Alliance with Family Farmers (North Coast chapter), she advocated for sensible streamlined land use policy.

Most recently, she helped bring together the Russian River Confluence, a coalition of 22 organizations dedicated to working together towards a healthy, resilient and regenerative Russian River watershed.

 

Yael, Paul and Zureal Bernier--Bernier Farms

Bernier Farms is a small, certified organic, family-run farm in Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys of Sonoma County, established in 1976 by Paul and Yael Bernier and known for its diversified farming, sustainable/regenerative ag, farm labor best practices, a farm training/student hosting program, and building farm and food education in the local community. They can be found at local Farmer’s Markets where their produce is much in demand as well as supplying restaurants which focus on local farm products and seasonal cooking.

  
 FOUNDATIONS AND PHILANTHROPISTS MAKING A DIFFERENCE:
 
Carol Rathmann--Forget Me Not Farm

Carol developed and has directed Forget Me Not Farm since its beginnings in 1992. With more than 35 years’ experience in humane education and animal welfare, she holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology with studies focused on the benefits of animal assisted and horticultural therapy to child victims of abuse and neglect, as well as certification as a Specialist in Animal Assisted Activities and Therapy.

The Forget Me Not Farm flagship program nurtures relationships between children, animals and gardens. Since its inception in 1992, Forget Me Not Farm has helped thousands of at-risk children and youth break the cycle of abuse.
 
Marty Griffin--The Martin Griffin Preserve at Audubon Canyon Ranch

Martin (Marty) Griffin, M.D. helped save the Marin and Sonoma County coasts from development, along with the Russian River, by preventing the building of a coastal four-lane freeway and a coastal aqueduct from the Russian River. He was instrumental in creating the Audubon Canyon Ranch, the gateway to the 71,000-acre Point Reyes National Seashore and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In 1998 he wrote the awarding-winning book, Saving the Marin-Sonoma Coast, the inspiration for the KRCB documentary film, Rebels With a Cause.

The Martin Griffin Preserve at Audubon Canyon Ranch is within the ancestral territories of the Coast Miwok, Southern Pomo, and Wappo peoples.

Operating for many years as a family-run dairy ranch, the land was protected from development in the early 1960s thanks to the conservation efforts of Marty Griffin, Aileen Pierson, Stan Picher, and other dedicated volunteers.

In 1968, the Preserve was designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

  

Food and Wine and Fun

A relaxed, indoor-outdoor floor plan will allow you to meet old friends and make new ones, too. You’ll mingle with our guests of honor and other food and wine lovers. We’ll be serving wines from leading local producers and offering an array of delicious foods.
 
 

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