Introducing the UC Berkeley Food and Wine Archives
posted by Kirstin in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers
My next post promises to dive into that not-so-elusive yet expansive realm of food and wine pairing, but before that post comes into fruition, I wanted to direct your attention to a very special food and wine project.
I discovered this project while researching at Cal, where in the depths of the UC Berkeley Regional Oral History Office, next to the Civil Rights interview shelf and above the Rosie the Riveter interview folders, is the UC Berkeley Food and Wine Archives. This department, funded primarily through philanthropic donors such as Chuck Williams of Williams and Sonoma, records and transcribes interviews with THE movers and shakers in the San Francisco Bay Area food and wine world. Needless to say, these shelves are overflowing.
Just some wine interviewees include, for example: Ernest Gallo, Miljenko Grgich, Justin Meyer of Silver Oak, Robert Mondavi, Maynard A Amerine, Joseph E Heitz, Merry Edwards, and Paul Draper. Many include insights on the 1973 Paris Tasting. Just some of the people interviewed in the food realm include: Mary Risley of Tante Marie Cooking School, Cecilia Chiang of Mandarin, Chuck Williams, and (sigh…) food writer Doris Muscatine.
Unlike journalistic interviews, when the interviewees voice shines only when the journalist allows it, these interviews are rarely edited. Granted, this can make for a very long read- we learn about the person’s background, childhood, and their extensive path to wine and food, however, while long, these oral histories are detailed, telling, and amazingly interesting. Depending on whose interviews you select to read, you might even get a dirty joke or two out of the journey (hello Mary Risely of Tante Marie Cooking School).
Most conveniently, all of the aforementioned interviews can be downloaded online at either of these two following web addresses, and all other interviews are available in hard copy through the University.
WINE: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/food_wine/wine.html
FOOD: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/food_wine/food.html
I was fortunate enough to interview some of the movers and shakers and transcribe others in which I was not otherwise involved, and consider myself very lucky. I learned so much! As you Snoothers are wine and food lovers, I’m sure that all of you will enjoy exploring this important historical project that at great lengths poignantly examines the world of food and wine.
Let me know what you think.
Kirstin Jackson Ellis works as a wine bar manager and wine and food consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes about wine and food pairing at Vin de La Table, her luxurious and lighthearted blog.
Kristin … I didn’t realize you were in the bay area … just curious, do you have any recommendations in the city?
John - i think you should go scope out the wine bar that Kirstin manages. I was going to go there when i was last in town but Kirstin wasnt around so we never got to meet.
In the city, I love the wine list at Bar Tartine, Bar Bambino, A16, Nectar….
And, a couple days a week, I can be found at Solano Cellars, which is a wine bar/wine shop in Albany (just across the street from Berkeley), where 12 new wines are available by the flight or glass everyday after 4pm.
@Philip … definitely a good idea … now to find out which one it is!
Wow, Kristin, thank you! The Andre Tchelistcheff interview is 246 pages long! It is like a auto-biography. This stuff is invaluable, thank you, again, for sharing this with us. It has become an immediate bookmark.
By the way…. which interviews did you do ?
This is really great. What a wealth of perspective.
Dan- Unfortunately no wine interviews! ROHO drew on my culinary background instead. Would have loved to do Merry Edward’s (okay, and tons of others!). But I oohed and awed over the wine ones completed. I interviewed Christopher Lee (of Eccolo and Chez Panisse), Maggie Pond (of César) and Charlie Hallowell (of Pizzaiolo and Chez Panisse). I transcribed those interviews of Heidi Krahling, Justine Miner, Chuck Williams, Paul Bertoli and Mary Risely, and…… maybe that’s it.
Glad you guys are enjoying the archives.
Thanks, Kristin. If I ever make it into the pantheon of some of the wine greats that are housed in this Library collection, I will make sure that it is you who does the interview. Look forward to checking out the interviews that you did…. thanks again.
@Kristin … I’m just down the road in Jack London Square. I’ll try to make it out there in the near future!