PROFILE: JOHN ASH
FETZER VINEYARDS CULINARY DIRECTOR

John Ash, Fetzer Vineyards Culinary Director, is one of California's most influential chefs and a leading food and wine author. Throughout the 1980s, as Executive Chef at John Ash & Co. in Sonoma County, he nurtured a cuisine based on seasonal products from nearby Sonoma and Mendocino County growers and breeders. His steadfast support of local organic farmers stimulated the growth of many cottage industries that flourish today as suppliers to restaurants, specialty food shops and produce markets.

In 1980, he opened John Ash & Co. in Santa Rosa, where he stayed for seven successful years. Ash gained national prominence when Food & Wine Magazine recognized him as one of the "hot new chefs of 1985." In 1990, the Zagat Survey honored John Ash & Co. as "the best California cuisine in San Francisco" (even though the restaurant is an hour north of the city). The Wine Spectator describes him as "king of the culinary mountain in Sonoma County."
In 1990, Ash became Culinary Director of the famed Fetzer Food & Wine Center at Valley Oaks. He travels the globe for Fetzer Vineyards, teaching cooking classes at the Culinary Institute of America and Cornell University, orchestrating wine and food events and preaching the enjoyment of ethically-grown, farm-fresh food, paired with Fetzer wines. Along with Ash's innovative and creative work with food and wine, he brings his signature approachable-yet-elegant style and excellent teaching abilities to his lectures and courses.

For the past eleven years, Ash has co-hosted the San Francisco Bay Area's longest-running live radio food show on KSRO AM 1350 in Santa Rosa. He has also been featured in a series of cooking shows on the Food Network.

His first book, American Game Cooking, published in 1991 by Aris Books/Addison-Wesley, has been hailed as a breakthrough in its genre. From the Earth to the Table-John Ash's Wine Country Cuisine (Dutton/Signet), Ash's second book, was honored as the "Best American Cookbook" and "Cookbook of the Year" at the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Julia Child Cookbook Awards in 1996. He was a contributor to the newly revised Joy of Cooking, and is a food columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. He is also a frequent contributor to Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light and Fine Cooking magazines.