MEET THE CHEFS

Off the Vine Catering has been in the restaurant and catering business in the Sacramento and El Dorado areas for over 25 years.  They focus on serving the Sacramento, El Dorado, Amador, Placer Counties, and beyond. They love food, and love helping people serve perfect, delicious food for their special event.  Off the Vine is known for providing high quality food, drink and service.

Stan Halverson is passionate about paella. He attended Bauman College: Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts School. He then worked with several high-end caterers, ever so carefully placing a caper atop a salmon egg atop a scallop atop micro greens—with a pair of tweezers, in the back of a hot tent—and never actually able to witness anyone enjoying the fruits of his labors. That is, until he got his first paella gig. Outdoors, overlooking a vineyard, creating the perfect blend of enticing flavors to all the ooohs and ahhs—and yes, yays!—he remembered how he first fell in love with cooking and why. “Paella is undeniably delicious,” Stan says. “But it’s also a celebration, a form of entertainment and a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach—all in one pan (albeit a very, very large pan.) The crowd gathers around and watches while I cook. People ask questions. They want their pictures taken. It’s a lot of fun. And that’s all even before I serve it!”

Amador County’s best dining experience is on Main Street, Plymouth, the gateway to the Amador Wine Country.  Taste has been selected as one of the Top 100 Wine Restaurants in America by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Taste is known to corner the market in vegan, vegetarian and GF options while continuing to impress with their flavorful, seasonal menu. Now in their seventh year at the Barbera Festival, come celebrate with us this local culinary treasure

Teresa’s Restaurant takes its name from Teresa Bassignani, who immigrated to the United States in 1913. In 1921, with $400 she’d saved, she moved to their present location and opened their restaurant, initially as a boarding house for miners.

When the mine shut down in the ’40s, Teresa offered a boarders’ table where people sat down and ate what was offered. This table existed at Teresa’s until 1950. The practice of putting all of the food on the table and letting each man serve himself came to be called “family style.” Although their beloved Grandma Teresa died on April 26, 1976, the Giurlani family continue to carry on her tradition of serving delicious, quality food in the same way she did nearly 100 years ago.