Keith Borglum's first gardening and canning memories are from less than age 10 in the 1950s, helping his mother and German immigrant grandmother, considering himself a family slave at the time. He never canned again until after acquiring his current home in the late '80s, which came with an overgrown orchard. In 1989, with his wife's breast cancer, they started canning to have more control of their diet, and extend the edible harvest through the winter. He also attended cooking classes and became reacquainted with the importance of fresh quality ingredients. He and his wife then took closer notice of the canning competition  display at the County Fair, and greatly expanded the vegetable garden and the creativity of canning they do. Keith joined the CA Rare Fruit Growers gardening club, and eventually grew the orchard to around 100 varieties of fruit and dozens of varieties of tomatoes and other crops, and became further overwhelmed with produce they didn't want to waste, so they canned it. Of course they then had to enter competitions, getting lots of ribbons, and culminating in 2004 with First Place in the County Fair and the Best of Show award at the Harvest Fair; at which point they stopped competing and returned to just canning for themselves with family and friends.

The judges were a little upset with Keith and his wife the prior year because they had planned to submit canned wild Bodega salmon caviar -which they had never had submitted before, but they ended up eating the entry instead. Keith still puts up 200-400 jars per year.

Although Dino Bugica was born in Reno, Nevada he still considers himself a “transplant” from Pisa, Italy.  He grew up with the influence of his Grandmother, Mary Pagni, and Mother, Diane Bugica, always cooking.  At 18, his passion for food and his heritage took him back to Italy where he lived for 7 years.  Informing his career was his apprenticeship with 2 butchers in San Miniato, Italy, Mirco Bertucci and Sergio Falaschi and making wine with his 86-year old cousin.  They taught him most of what he knows today about charcuterie and gave him his highly developed appreciation of wine and food pairing.  In Italy he studied with other artisans while working for Il Bistro and Il Posto in Versilia, Italy and Cagliostro in Pisa.  He was on a vacation to Northern Sonoma County when someone recommended he make the trip to Santi restaurant.   Once he tried their Trippa Ala Fiorentina he knew this was a restaurant he wanted to be a part of.   Soon after, he joined Santi’s team of Italian Chefs.  Santi Restaurant

Logan Cooper has just returned from a year at APICIUS, the Culinary Institute of Florence, where he completed Advanced Level training.  While there he worked at Beccofino, an internationally recognized restaurant serving traditional Florentine food with a modern twist.  Prior to leaving for Italy, Logan cooked at Enoteca Vespaio in Austin, Texas and worked behind the scenes on several major motion pictures.  Follow his and his wife's quest to eat their way around the world at www.bootsintheoven.com

Franco Dunn was one of the founding Chefs at Santi in 2000.  Although Dunn grew up in a family that was passionate about food and wine, it wasn't until he was 33 years old that he realized that the career he had long searched for was right there behind the stoves. He joined up with his old friend, Bruce Aidells, a well-known Bay-Area cooking instructor, and began to learn the trade. In 1982 Dunn enrolled in the California Culinary Academy, and then went to Italy where he cooked for many years in total of fourteen different restaurants.  These restaurants ranged from Piemonte in the North to Puglia and Calabria in the South.  With old world Italian cooking being his destiny Santi was a dream realized.  His passion is salumi, the Italian equivalent of French charcuterie.  He has won numerous awards for his salumi and sausages. He is dedicated to keeping old recipes and the traditional Italian way of cooking alive.  Santi Restaurant

Bob Engel joined Gourmet Mushrooms as Director of Marketing and Chef Liaison in 2001. He has worked as a chef on both coasts and was the chef at Sonoma County’s Topolos Russian River Vineyards for almost twenty years. He is the author A Chef’s Notebook and his recipes have appeared in numerous magazines and recipe compilations.

In 1996, he represented the California Wine Country in a “Salute to California Cuisine” in The Netherlands. In 2006 he brought his knowledge of cooking with mushrooms to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. As a culinary ambassador for Gourmet Mushrooms he has given talks on mushroom cultivation, mushroom cookery, and pairing wine with mushrooms at Copia in Napa, the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and as well as many local wineries.

Uri Harash, was born and raised in Kibbutz Yiron in the Galilee, the very place where some of the most incredible stories of the Bible took place. The ancient soil, the massive mountains, and the open sky of his native land inspired a deep love in him for the stories of his ancestors and the Holy Scriptures. As a youth, Uri would recite the tales to his family and friends in the oral tradition of the ancient bards.

He began his career working as a tour guide for the Jewish Agency and continued leading groups from all over the world working for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. As a journalist for Eretz Vateva, a leading Israeli geographical magazine, Uri wrote about his personal experience of exploring unknown sites around Israel. He then expanded his travels outside of the Holy Land working as a tour guide for the Vatican Museum in Rome, Italy.

Uri's family roots in the Holy Land run seven generations deep. His great grandfather, for example, was one of the first Hebrew teachers in Jerusalem at the end of the 19th century. This unique heritage gives an authentic flavor to Uri's Bible story telling. To complement the Bible tales, Uri offers generations-old family stories that give a rare insight into the more recent history of the Holy Land and the people who loved, lived, and died there.

Currently, he gives presentations on Israel and the Bible for all age groups. He’s also working as a Jewish educator, Bible storyteller and Hebrew instructor for high school students and adults in San Francisco, California.

John McReynolds has been cooking professionally since 1982, when he graduated from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

Several years later he found himself as executive chef for LucasFilm’s Skywalker Ranch complex in Marin County. After a stint in Europe where he met his wife John cooked at Sonoma's, Ristorante Piatti.  Twelve years ago, McReynolds was cooking at Sonoma’s Bear Flag Café when San Francisco restaurant co-owner (of Ecco), Saul Gropman, came in for dinner with his wife. John's cooking impressed Gropman and they soon formed a partnership and opened Cafe La Haye in 1996.  The restaurant in downtown Sonoma has been awarded three stars (Excellent) by San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer and has made the Chronicle’s top-100 list of restaurants every year since 1998.

As well as being a regular columnist for The Sonoma Valley Sun, John has published dozens of recipes in food publications, newspapers and cookbooks.

McReynolds is on the faculty of Ramekins Cooking School in Sonoma and recently participated in the Yosemite Chefs’ Holidays at The Ahwahnee. He has appeared on the television cooking shows Wine Country Living, Bay Café, and Dining Around with Dave Ekert, and on KRON-TV with food critic Michael Bauer.

Sandro Spano was born in Sardinia, Italy.  At the age of nineteen, he left home for London where he lived for eight years.  After eight years in London, Professor Spano was hired to work on the Royal Viking Sea and in 1983, he went on to work on the Sun Princess, “The Love Boat,” where he met his wife.

In 1985, Professor Spano arrived in Santa Rosa.  He immediately found work as a restaurant manager at the Hotel La Rose, as Maitre D’ at the Sheraton Round Barn and as restaurant manager at  El Rancho Tropicana.

In 1989, Sandro decided to go back to school.  He obtained an A.A. degree from Santa Rosa Junior College.  He transferred to U.C., Berkeley where he received a B.A. in Italian, graduating at the top 3%, with Highest Honors, High Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa and Departmental Citation for “outstanding undergraduate achievement.”  He taught Italian at Berkeley for two years, during his permanence as a graduate student.  In 1995 he obtained an M.A. in Italian. 

Upon obtaining his M.A., Professor Spano joined the Santa Rosa Junior College faculty where he has been teaching Italian for 15 years.