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A Day at the Mustard Festival Marketplace

This past Saturday, March 14th, we attended the 2009 Napa Valley Mustard Festival: The Marketplace. Wearing our Salud! Napa apparel, the event proved to be fun-filled with delicious wines and mouthwatering food. We helped pour with Ceja Vineyards and we were also mentioned on Dining Around with Gene Burns. Amelia Ceja, President and Co-Founder of Ceja Vineyards, was interviewed on the show and brought up our new online cooking venture, discussing the impact that it will have on food and wine culture upon its launch this summer. One of the highlights of the interview was when Amelia invited Gene to be a guest on our show to which he amicably agreed.

To Gene, thank you so much for your support!

In its sixteenth edition, the Napa Valley Mustard Festival is a non-profit community service organization with the dual purpose of serving both local businesses and non-profit organizations and of promoting national and international businesses that sponsor and participate. The events, held during the months of January, February and March, attract visitors to Napa Valley at a season when the vineyards are naturally adorned with mustards, spicing up the green scenery with the tones of gold.

Mar 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM

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Video Blog #1 - Introduction

A short glimpse into the people behind the online cooking show Salud! Napa. Enjoy!

Mar 14, 2009 at 1:12 AM

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Interview with Amelia Ceja

President, Co-Founder & Executive Chef at Ceja Vineyards

Over some great food and wine at the Ceja Vineyards' tasting room in Carneros, we sat down to interview Amelia Ceja, Head Chef and hostess of the Salud! Napa cooking show. 

What aspect of food preparation brings you the most joy?
Putting all the ingredients together and uncovering the various flavor profiles.

How did you learn to cook?
I started hanging out in the kitchen with Mamá Chepa, my maternal grandmother, when I was three years old. And, she taught me the essence of cooking.

What’s the dish that you most like to cook?
Soups -- they are comforting and nurture your spirit.

What advice do you have for people experimenting with food and wine pairing?
Close your eyes and listen to your palate -- there is room at the table for wine regardless of what the menu is as long as the wine is balanced.

What’s on your to-do list?
I would like to write a cookbook.

What is the difference, if any, between the Amelia from Ceja Vineyards and the Amelia from Salud! Napa?
There is no difference -- I'm the same devoted and passionate person that enjoys wine with world cuisine.

What’s your most cherished family tradition and why?
Preparing Dungeness crab Indonesian style for my family every November.

What three people would you most like to have dinner with?
Mama Chepa, my maternal grandmother, Frida Kahlo and the Dalai Lama.

What’s something people might be surprised to know about you?
I was a tomboy -- in my village, girls were not encouraged to do sports, yet, I never listened. I played baseball, soccer, and learned how to race horses and ride a bicycle with all the boys of my village.

What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do but still haven’t?
I've been to Oaxaca and I want to spend at least one month there taking cooking classes.

Do you have any special sayings or expressions?
"I'm my children's biggest fan," and "my parents are my heroes."

What would you say is the most important thing for living a good life?
Being at peace with myself.

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TUNE IN! This Saturday, March 14^th at 11:30am, Amelia will be interviewed on Dining Around with Gene Burns, broadcast on KGO Radio-AM 810 live from the 2009 Napa Valley Mustard Festival. Listen in from 10am-1pm for the full show!
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We look forward to start shooting the cooking show episodes and sharing them with you all!

¡Salud!

Ariel y Anna
 

Mar 12, 2009 at 10:50 AM

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Mustards & Quotes

Hello everyone! With spring around the corner, the view from the office is becoming more beautiful by the day. The pathways between the vineyard rows are filled with bright green grass and small plants where yellow mustard flowers are growing and marking their presence in the landscape. I guess we're watching Planet Earth live!

Aside from all the nature talk, progress with the website has been going well. While we are finalizing the design portion of Salud! Napa, production on the cooking show has begun. Soon we’ll post a teaser episode on our blog. In the meantime, please check out this list we put together of interesting food and wine quotes. Hope you guys like our selection:

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” – George Bernard Shaw

“A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine.” – Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste (1825)

“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food!” – Anonymous

“I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.” – Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

“What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?” – Lin Yutang

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” – Harriet van Horne

“I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead – not sick, not wounded – dead.” – Woody Allen

“Hunger is the best sauce in the world.” – Cervantes

“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.” – Voltaire

¡Salud!

Ariel & Anna
 

Mar 6, 2009 at 6:07 PM

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¡Bienvenidos!

Hola and welcome to Salud! Napa! We’re looking forward to bringing you the internet’s first and only bi-cultural cooking show, wine portal and social networking site. And while our launch date is still a few months away we’re happy to keep you updated on our progress. To give you a better idea of Salud! Napa's purpose in this world, here’s the original mission statement:

"Salud! Napa's mission is to create a bilingual bicultural cooking show that embraces world cuisine, wine and the arts. We seek to showcase a fun and healthy lifestyle to the willing that will not only nourish their appetite but their souls' as well. By focusing on nutritious foods and inspired eating habits, Salud! Napa will serve as a guide to the global population on how easy and pleasurable it is to spend time in the kitchen."

Now, we introduced it as the "original" mission statement because the website concept has since grown and it will take on additional cool features. Although we’ll primarily focus on the cooking shows presented by Amelia Ceja, executive chef and president of Ceja Vineyards, the website will also feature blogs, local business profiles, an online store and allow members to create their own profiles in a community driven environment.

As a website that promotes freedom of speech, Salud! Napa will act as a medium for the exploration of new ideas and suggestions via the art of food preparation and wine pairing; all while providing users with a fun and intuitive interface. As we continue to expand and add new features, we’ll look to our members for recommendations and improvements. There will be a "Feedback" button on every page, allowing an easier stream of communication between ourselves and the community – you guys!

Please check out the following link to a great blog piece on Salud! Napa written by Ken Payton’s blog Reignofterroir.com posted on January 16th, 2009: Salud Napa, Ariel Ceja's Bold 2.0 Vision for Ceja Vineyards. 

We are thrilled to be working on this project and to be able to share our thoughts, opinions, and progress with you as Salud! Napa gets underway.

Until our next post!

¡Salud!

Anna and Ariel

Feb 25, 2009 at 12:58 AM

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