Food for Thought: Local Chefs with Michelin-Star Skills

California Groundbreakers

Sacramento calls itself the "Farm to Fork Capital," but it won't be written up in a Michelin Guide for the foreseeable future (we're not included in the Guide for the Bay Area and Wine Country). But that's okay, because we've got a couple of natives who left town to work at Michelin-starred restaurants and are now coming back home with their Top Chef skills and creds, and opening up their own places here. For our first "Food for Thought" event of 2018, those two chefs talk about all things food - skills, favorite dishes and ingredients, their new restaurants, and whether "Michelin" and "Sacramento" belong in the same sentence. PANELISTS * Brad Cecchi - a Carmichael native who earned a Michelin star as executive chef at Solbar in Calistoga, and came back to open Canon in East Sacramento * Scott Ostrander - he sold his Sacramento home, intending to backpack through Europe, but instead got a job at the three-star restaurant Alinea in Chicago before returning here to blend Michelin skills with Farm-to-Fork philosophy at Paragary, then the Inn at Park Winters, and soon at his own place, Origami Asian Grill in East Sacramento PODCAST TIMEFRAME * O to 2:45 minutes - Intro to California Groundbreakers * 2:45 min - Panelists introduce themselves, and share what's in their refrigerators * 4:30 min - Cecchi's journey from Embassy Suites in Sacramento to Michelin-starred Solbar in Calistoga * 7:45 min - Deciding between backpacking across Europe or working at a Michelin three-star restaurant * 13:40 min -- The difference between working in a Michelin-starred kitchen and other fine-dining restaurants * 18:10 min -- Cecchi talks about maintaining Solbar's one-star Michelin rating -- or else looking for a new job * 23 min -- The reasons for returning to Sacramento, and opening up their own restaurants * 32:30 min -- How can women's status as top chefs be improved? * 36:45 min -- How to get truly local produce grown in Sacramento into its top restaurants * 39:15 min -- The one meal Sacramento should be famous for * 41:50 min -- The difference between a line chef and a Top Chef * 43:30 min -- Is attending culinary school worth the price of $70,000 tuition? * 48:50 min -- Why isn't the Michelin Guide in Sacramento yet? * 51:45 min -- Is this town a good place for haute cuisine? * 54:40 min -- What it will take to keep momentum going for new restaurants opening up here * 1 hr, 3 min -- Which Michelin-star skills chefs are using in their own restaurants * 1 hr, 7:35 min -- Keeping the pace without cracking up * 1 hr, 11:30 min -- What cooking skills they've learned -- and adapted -- from their travels * 1 hr, 13:50 min -- What they want to see added to Sacramento's food scene -- and what should go away