Saturday, January 20
| 3:00PM
CIA at Copia | Napa
Featuring insightful interviews with Alice Waters, Tanya Holland, Jacques Pepin, Anne Lamott, Ruth Reichl, and other contemporary culinary and literary greats, Gregory Bezat’s 2023 documentary explores the exciting life and lasting impact of the intrepid mid-century California food writer M.F.K. Fisher, who elevated cooking from a domestic chore to a critical study of life itself. Described by W.H. Auden as “the best prose writer in America,” the underrecognized Fisher introduced continental sensibilities to California’s burgeoning culinary world, while she transformed the traditional background figure of a woman in the kitchen into a living, breathing subject with dazzling ideas, passionate emotions, and insatiable appetites.
Includes Q&A with the film’s creative team and special guests immediately following the screening, including Fisher's daughter, Kennedy Golden, and chefs Tanya Holland and Dominica Rice-Cisneros, who are featured in the film.
Join us for an intimate post-screening wine and food reception with the film’s creative team and special guests organized by the Culinary Institute of America in honor of the film’s release.
This screening portion of this event is now sold out.
If you have a screening ticket, consider securing your place at the post-screening Wine & Food Reception Hosted by CIA at Copia.
$85 per guest (screening not included)
Performers
Greg Bezat brings over three decades of production experience to each project he works on. From 1994 to 2010, Greg was Creative Director/Co-owner of Media Image Group, a San Francisco Bay Area media production company.
Gary Meyer was born and raised in the Napa Valley where he started making movies as a boy. He currently publishes EatDrinkFilms.com and consults for independent art houses, film festivals, and filmmakers. The Art of Eating is his first feature as a producer.
M.F.K. Fisher’s younger daughter, Kennedy Golden, spent her childhood enjoying exposure to multiple cultures, while traveling with her mother. After earning an undergraduate degree in Stage Management and a first (25 year) career in theater, she earned a graduate degree in Counseling and Psychology. Both served her well in her 45 year career at Mills College in Oakland, California.
While Ann Lamott is well known and loved for her novels, she also wrote Rosie, Joe Jones, Blue Shoe, All New People, and Crooked Little Heart, a popular nonfiction piece. Operating Instructions was her raw and honest account of becoming a single mother and chronicle of her son's first year of life.
Born in 1935 in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, near Lyon, Jacques Pépin always found the kitchen to be a place of both comfort and excitement. Pépin is a former columnist for The New York Times and author of more than 30 books, including The Other Half of the Egg.
Ruth Reichl is the author of My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, a cookbook published in September 2015. She was Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine from 1999 to 2009. Before that she was the restaurant critic of both The New York Times (1993-1999) and the Los Angeles Times (1984-1993), where she was also named food editor.
Named one of the “Female Titans of the Bay Area Food Scene” by Eater San Francisco, Dominica Rice-Cisneros is a chef and restaurateur whose storied career spans more than three decades.
Acclaimed for her inventive take on modern soul food, as well as comfort classics, Tanya Holland is the Executive Chef/Owner of the internationally renowned and beloved Brown Sugar Kitchen restaurant, in Oakland, California.
Founder of the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, Alice Waters is considered by many to be the originator of “California Cuisine.” Her philosophy of using only fresh, locally grown organic ingredients and her advocacy of sustainable agriculture has made her one of America’s most influential chefs.
Venue
Located in the Oxbow District, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Copia offers an array of enticing culinary experiences delivered by CIA chefs and experts, including hands-on cooking and beverage classes; lively public events and art exhibits; a signature garden-to-table restaurant; an exclusive 3D interactive dining experience; and The Chuck Williams Culinary Arts Museum.