By Noma Faingold (Updated October 2, 2025)
Chef Melissa King was not like the other kids growing up in Whittier, a small city in Los Angeles County. While her peers watched Saturday morning cartoons, she was glued to Julie Child shows, Martin Yan’s “Yan Can Cook” and other television cooking programs.
“I was always very interested in food and I liked to eat,” King said.
By Noma Faingold (May 1, 2025)
When chef/owner Anthony Strong decided to open his restaurant/shop combo, the Pasta Supply Co., in April 2023 on Clement Street, he took DIY to an extreme. Continue reading
Director Peter Miller talks with Geneva Anderson
(March 20, 2025- foods mentioned with an * behind them open to recipes)
Marcella Hazan is the secret ingredient that made Italian cuisine irresistible to Americans. Through her cookbooks and teaching, she taught home cooks to focus on fresh ingredients and master simple techniques to unlock flavor, which is what truly matters in food. Emmy and Peabody Award winning director Peter Miller’s thoroughly engaging new documentary, “Marcella,” which just won a Taste award for best feature, masterfully pieces together Hazan’s life (1924-2013) and legacy.
A Marcella Hazan tribute dinner, 17 food-related films, and Michelin Chef Yoshinori Ishii’s masterclass on Japanese cuisine highlight a wine country festival starting Wednesday with 90+ events.
By Geneva Anderson
(March 16, 2025)
The Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF), March 19-23, offers an extravaganza of groundbreaking cinema, food, and fun spread over five days in glorious Sonoma, the heart of the wine country. All films are screened at venues in or within walking distance of the historic town square making SIFF one of the country’s most laid back and enjoyable festivals. The full line-up includes over 90 films.
An Interview with SIFF27 Culinary Excellence Award winner, Chef Susan Feniger and filmmaker Liz Lachman.
By Geneva Anderson
(March 20, 2024)
When Los Angeles filmmaker and Emmy award winner Liz Lachman (“Pin-Up,” “Getting to Know You”) set out to make her first feature-length film about partner, Chef Susan Feniger, opening her first solo restaurant in Los Angeles in 2009, she already had lots of footage. The idea of capturing Susan’s journey in realizing “Street,” a dining concept that would bring a variety of global street foods together under one roof and doing this without her longtime business partner and co-chef Mary Sue Milliken, had been simmering for 13 years. Continue reading
By Geneva Anderson
(March 21, 2023)
Long known for its culinary and wine films and now, its celebrity chef events, the 26th Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF), March 22-26, finds magic in its combo of film, food, wine, parties and its gorgeous wine country setting. This year’s edition offers 110 films from 32 countries, one world premiere and eight U.S. premieres. SIFF has always excelled at bringing audiences great stories, especially dramas that find their resolution in working together in a food, wine, or vineyard setting. Its two celebrity chef dining experiences are luxurious splurges that enliven the whole festival experience: the annual Chefs & Shorts dinner and Joanne Weir’s luncheon.
By Nancy Friedman
September 20, 2022
Fish have been swimming onto San Francisco Bay Area menus ever since there were people around to catch and cook them. And Mexican cuisine has been represented in the region ever since Alta California was part of Mexico. But until 1992, although dozens of Bay Area restaurants served a steady tide of petrale sole, halibut, salmon, and sand dabs—not to mention McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, invented in 1962—and although there were plenty of places to enjoy burritos, enchiladas, and quesadillas, one Mexican fish dish was still just a wish: the fish taco.
Continue reading
By Geneva Anderson
Jetting out of Halifax is rarely simple for Devour! The Film Food Fest co-founders, Lia Rinaldo and Chef Michael Howell. As they headed for the 25th edition of the Sonoma International Film Festival, they were schlepping 400 Sober Island Oysters and several bottles of Domaine de Grand Pré’s prized sparkling Champlain Brut. The special cargo was for Chef Howell as he organized his own appetizer while juggling the details of numerous other participants in the eagerly-awaited SIFF | Devour! “Chefs & Shorts Culinary” Event Honoring Chef Jacques Pépin.
Michael Howell and Lia Renaldo. Photo courtesy Devour!
Two fascinating video sessions occurred in November, 2021. We have obtained these recording for your viewing pleasure.
Gregory Bezat, San Francisco producer/director of a film in production, M.F.K. Fisher:The Art of Eating, was on a terrific panel on Food Luminary Documentaries such as Julia Child and James Beard.
Allen Michaan told tales of saving and operating the Grand Lake Theatre movie palace in Oakland in a wide-ranging conversation about the joys of saving a place that has meant so much for nearly a of century of moviegoers..
Both can be watched below.
by C.J. Hirschfield
The experience of walking into Oaktown Spice Shop across from Oakland’s Lake Merritt was unique. You’d stop, inhale deeply, and smile. You’d immediately engage with the staff– and other customers– about what spices they’d suggest for various dishes, and just feel thankful that such a special place exists in the neighborhood.
by Julie Lindow
My fancy future breakfast includes sheep-milk yogurt, farm-direct and organic coffee with mushroom creamer, breakfast chocolate, pasta, California honey, and a Moringa green shake. That is exactly what I ate at the 2020 Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, California. As I ate, I learned that in the future, food will be sustainable, organic, fair trade, or rather farm direct, and nutrient dense.
eatdrinkfilms.com 