Tanya Henry

Dru Rivers of Full Belly Farm is one of the farmers’ names that first appeared on Northern California restaurant menus in the 1990s.
It wasn’t common practice back then to credit the farmers who provided the beautiful fruits and vegetables that were expertly showcased in delicious dishes from lauded chefs. Thankfully, much has changed since then.
“My real culinary mentor was always going to be the farm,” says Amon Muller, second generation farmer and son of Dru Rivers and Paul Muller. Along w...

Sweet things are afoot in Bolinas, thanks to pastry chef Emily Luchetti.
Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s more than likely her sublime, next level desserts are lodged in the memory banks of countless diners who have enjoyed her pastry genius in Bay Area restaurants over the years.
The pastry chef, cookbook author and educator has been wowing local diners with her impressive pastry chops from as early as 1987, when she began her West Coast culinary journey with an eight-year tenure a...

There are few things more satisfying than a hot cup of coffee, especially after two hours in the ocean at Stinson Beach.

And as it turns out, along with fresh made pistachio-filled pastries and black bean breakfast burritos, Parkside Café’s kiosk offers a range of coffee options prepared with beans from a revered roastery that has been quietly selling their coffee out of a storefront on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood since 1935.

Graffeo Coffee is San Francisco’s o...

While the Thursday and Sunday San Rafael Civic Center farmers markets have been in operation since 1983 and 1987, respectively, it wasn’t until 2010 when the Agricultural Institute of Marin (AIM) was officially formed that a farm audit program was put in place to ensure the integrity of the markets.

Today, AIM not only verifies where and how food is grown by the participating farmers and producers; the 501(c)3 nonprofit operates nine certified farmers markets across the Bay Area, offers a mob...

Whether you stumbled upon it randomly while exploring Larkspur, or you frequented it as a beloved watering hole, The Silver Peso has existed for many as an essential Marin institution. The recently closed bar has a long and colorful history, and is poised to reopen in the spring under the ownership of Max Perry and Conor Flaherty, who are committed to stewarding and restoring the longtime favorite neighborhood staple back to its fabled glory.
“Marin has plenty of wine bars, but we beli...

Given that California is the second largest U.S. cheese producer (after Wisconsin), it’s not surprising that artisan cheesemakers have flourished in the Golden State. For anyone who has yet to discover the magic that is cheese—here comes the opportunity.
“We were fortunate to have participated in this event from the very beginning,” says Achadinha Cheese Company’s Donna Pacheco, who along with her husband, Jim Pacheco, a third-generation dairy farmer, will join more than 20 fellow cheesemaker...

Chef Heidi Krahling Combats Hunger, One Delicious Bowl at a Time
The phrase it takes a village is often overused, but in the case of restaurateur Heidi Krahling’s SOUPer Food Kitchen it couldn’t be more apt. For almost two years, Krahling has been creating innovative soup recipes from surplus ingredients that have been rescued by ExtraFood.org. Community Action Marin (CAM) generously donates space in their commercial kitchen where Chef Krahling and a team of volunteers chop, prep, cook and po...

Driving through emerald, green pastoral hills of Sonoma County, en route to the newly named Pacheco Family Ranch (aka Achadinha Cheese Company), it’s hard not to be dazzled by bucolic tableaus of grazing cows, red barn and tractor still life’s and wide-open pastures. With the arrival of spring, cheesemaker Donna Pacheco, her husband Jim and their four children are busier than ever raising and milking their herd of cows, producing farmstead dairy products, feeding chickens and much more. Their...

Three artisans follow wildly different journeys to chase the ever-romantic (and not so easy) road of entering the dairy industry.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who has passionately believed that cheesemaking was once their true calling. I had even planned to move across the country, figure out how to source milk, and tend my own herd of sheep or cows before I reluctantly came to terms with the fact that writing about the irresistible food of the gods is the closest I would ever come to mak...

It was Claire Ptak’s Lemon and Elderflower Wedding Cake with buttercream frosting that quite literally changed her life forever.
The West Marin native and Chez Panisse pastry chef alum had moved to London and opened Violet Bakery in 2010. Eight years later, she was tapped to make Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding cake.
While she has been living in East London for over 15 years, Ptak’s newest cookbook offers deeply personal insight into her life growing up in West Marin and how it shape...

While Heidi Krahling, the beloved chef-owner of Insalata’s Mediterranean Restaurant in San Anselmo, may never retire, she has stepped back from her daily restaurant work to pursue an endeavor she has dreamed of for years. Krahling has teamed up with ExtraFood to transform excess produce collected by the food recovery group into restaurant-caliber soup. Utilizing the infrastructure and delivery services of the hunger relief program, and a commercial kitchen with a 40-gallon soup kettle in Terr...

There was a time when winery visits consisted of sipping a flight in a crowded tasting room, then scurrying off to the next three or four wineries for a repeat experience. But these days, many wineries offer an entire array of temptations – from bocce courts and cabanas to food trucks, jeep tours, cave experiences and more – all designed to pair nicely with that bubbly, crisp sauv blanc or hearty zin, and encourage people to relax and spend the entire day at one winery.
More and more vineyard...

SIBLINGS MOVE POINT REYES FARMSTEAD CHEESE COMPANY FORWARD WHILE PRESERVING THEIR FAMILY’S LEGACY

Picayune Cellars and Mercantile in downtown Calistoga

Marin County would be hard-pressed to find someone more qualified for or committed to helping the local agriculture community than Vivien Straus. Not only did she grow up on her family’s farm in Marshall, she also helped her brother launch Straus Family Creamery, where she would serve as VP of sales and marketing for more than 10 years (she is no longer involved with the creamery), and she even coordinated farm tours for Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station. While she would eventually go o...