Celebrity Chefs Martin Yan and Joanne Weir are front and center at the 26th Sonoma International Film Festival, March 22-26, 2023

Chef Martin Yan, 2022 James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, will be honored with the SIFF Culinary Excellence Award at the SIFF | Devour!Chefs & Shorts Dinner on Thursday, March 23, 2023.  Chef Yan will give a cooking demonstration and prepare one course for the extravaganza which features pairings of short films with gourmet courses prepared by visiting chefs, along with bountiful pours of Napa Valley wines. Photo: SIFF

The 26^th Sonoma International Film Festival is just six weeks away and the culinary events lineup is out, ahead of any news about special guests, big nights and the program drop.  SIFF This year’s SIFF | Devour! Chefs & Shorts Dinner honors global television personality Chef Martin Yan on Thursday, March 23.   Chef Joanne Weir returns for her second SIFF with Joanne Weir’s Wine Country Cooking Luncheon, Saturday, March 25, where she will premiere segments from her new PBS show, “Joanne Weir’s Wine Country Cooking.”  Bringing film lovers together around a table for a sumptuous meal with free-flowing top wines and even more film is where SIFF excels—forging wonderful conversations and friendships, making the festival come alive. SIFF has just announced that its discounting of festival passes has been extended through February 28. Both culinary experiences are included with the 2023 Patron Pass and are discounted for 2023 Soiree and Cinema Passholders.

SIFF | Devour! Chefs & Shorts Dinner Honoring Chef Martin Yan, Thursday March 23, 2023

In a career spanning 40-plus years, Chef Martin Yan has connected with audiences across the world through his public television series, introducing generations of North Americans to Chinese and Asian cuisines. He has hosted over 3,500 cooking shows, authored over 30 cookbooks and founded a chain of Yan Can Restaurants and the Yan Can International Cooking School in San Francisco. I have vivid memories of watching him on PBS, slicing and dicing vegetables with impeccable precision at a rapid-fire pace and of his wonderful heart-felt enthusiasm. His message: “If Yan can cook, so can you!” 

And accolades! The James Beard Foundation recognized Yan with an award for best television cooking show in 1994, best television food journalism in 1996, and a who’s who of food and beverage in America in 2001. In 1998, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for best cooking show for “Yan Can Cook” which has aired since 1978 and is syndicated around the world making it one of the longest-running American cooking programs of all times. In 2022, the James Beard Foundation honored him again with a lifetime achievement award.

The celeb, famous for cutting up a chicken in 18 seconds, in his 70’s now, still has boundless energy and is a popular YouTube host, livestreaming his approachable recipes from his home kitchen. In 2022, it was announced he would be opening M.Y. Asia in Las Vegas, at the Horseshoe Casino and Hotel (formerly Bally’s) featuring pan-Asian cuisine. The UC Davis alum also recently made a gift to the UC Davis Library Archives and Special Collections to create the Chef Martin Yan Legacy Archive.

Chef Yan brings his unique “Yan-ergy” to the SIFF | Devour! Chefs & Shorts Dinner and will prepare a course during the event that is certain to wow attendees with cleaver action. In addition to Chef Yan, notable chefs at this year’s dinner include Michael Howell | Executive Director of Devour! The Food Film Festival and Executive Chef of the Green Turtle club, Bahamas; Emily Lim | Chef-Owner of Dabao Singapore in San Francisco; Ruby Oliveros | Executive Chef at Ram’s Gate Winery in Sonoma; and Cogir Executive Chef Ensan Wong. Participating wineries are Anaba Wines, Bee Hunter, Gloria Ferrer, Ram’s Gate Winery and Viansa. The event is SIFF’s fourth collaboration with Devour! The Food Film Fest and its founder Chef Michael Howell and Co-Director Lia Rinaldo. During the course of the evening, Yan will receive SIFF’s Culinary Excellence Award and will be the second chef to be honored by SIFF. Chef Jacques Pépin was the inaugural recipient in 2022.

“We’re excited Chef Yan is joining us for our Chef and Shorts event, and he’ll actually be cooking, which doubles the excitement,” said SIFF Artistic Director Carl Spence. “It’s wonderful to honor this world-class chef along with world-class cinema, so it’s a great pairing.”

Joanne Weir’s Wine Country Cooking Luncheon, Saturday, March 25

Chef Joanne Weir, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, international cooking teacher, renowned chef and host of her famed PBS cooking series “Plates & Places” is about to launch a new PBS cooking series. a sneak preview of which will be shown at her SIFF luncheon. Photo: SIFF

Chef Joanne Weir is back at SIFF for a second time to showcase her new PBS show “Joanne Weir’s Wine Country Cooking” with a special lunch event on Saturday, March 25, from 11 to 1 pm. Weir began her career working at Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse in Berkeley before moving to food travel tours and opening Sausalito’s Copita Tequileria Y Comida restaurant. She has spent some four decades writing over 20 cookbooks, teaching cooking and is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author. She is known internationally for her TV shows such as “Joanne Weir’s Cooking Confidence” and “Joanne Weir’s Plates & Places.”   At Saturday’s luncheon, she will premiere her new PBS cooking and travel television series, paired with a three-course meal she has curated representing various Sonoma County people, places, and purveyors. One of the special treats in store for attendees is the exclusive Della Terra Olive Oil and balsamic vinegars,

“We’re are thrilled to welcome Chef Weir back to the festival,” said SIFF Executive Director Ginny Krieger. “Her energy, enthusiasm, and engagement with our audience, along with her delicious lunch, was a highlight last year. We’re so glad she’s returning to make this year even more memorable.”

“I’m so excited to be part of the Sonoma International Film Festival,” said Weir. “This event oozes creativity, artistry and fun; the energy is contagious!”

Details: SIFF26 is March 22-26, 2023. Both culinary events are at the Hanna Center, Sonoma, and both are included with the 2023 Patron Pass and are discounted for 2023 Soiree and Cinema Passholders. Non-passholder prices: SIFF | Devour! Chefs & Shorts Dinner Chefs $350; Joanne Weir’s Wine Country Cooking Luncheon $175. Buy your tickets now as both events will sell out. (The Hanna Center is roughly 4.5 miles from the town square.)

For information on passes and to buy tickets: https://sonomafilmfest.org/

“Sargent and Spain” opens at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor on Saturday with a lively curator panel and Flamenco dancing in the courtyard

Sargent was captivated by Spain’s dance culture and his preparatory drawings and finished works are infused with the sultry rhythms and raw sensuality of flamenco.  His many sketches on display at the Legion of Honor show how he studied and mastered these intricate movements, creating dynamic sensual masterpieces which stood in contrast to his society portraits. John Singer Sargent “Study for the Spanish Dancer,” 1880-1881 Watercolor, 11 7/8 × 7 7/8 in. (30.16 × 20 cm) Dallas Museum of Art. Image: FAMSF.

Celebrated as the society portraitist of his era, John Singer Sargent visited Spain seven times between 1879 and 1912, turning out a remarkable body of work, which is explored for the first time in “Sargent and Spain,” at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor through May 14, 2023.   The exhibit, which originated at the National Gallery, presents over 140 of Sargent’s dazzling oils, watercolors, and drawings, along with never-before-exhibited photographs, showcasing Spain’s people, architecture, and magnificent urban and rural landscapes.  A highlight is Sargent’s fascination with dance and several studies portraits of dancers are included.  

This Saturday, the exhibit opens to the public with a performance of live flamenco music and dance, and a panel discussion from the curators, offering an overview of the exhibition and discussion of Sargent’s fascination with Spanish art and culture and its influence on his work—both are free.

Sargent and Spain: Curators in Conversation:  11 – 12 pm Gunn Theater, Legion of Honor

Emma Acker, FAMSF (Fine Arts Musuems of San Francisco) associate curator of American art will lead a conversation with Sarah Cash, associate curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery of Art, along with Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, exhibition co-curators and co-authors of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonné.  The delightful Ormond is the great nephew of Sargent, and grandson of Sargent’s sister, Violet Sargent Ormond and grew up with some of these art works on his walls.  The Gunn auditorium will open 1 hour before the talk and early arrival is recommend to secure seating.

The panel talk will be live-streamed on the Legion’s YouTube channel: click here on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Dance and music performance by Caminos Flamencos:  12 – 2 pm, Court of Honor, Legion of Honor

Sargent was inspired by Majorca, especially by the island’s light and vegetation, and the exhibit devotes a gallery to artworks created there.  His beloved “Pomegranates, Majorca,” from 1908, the exhibition’s poster, features these magical fruits bursting in juicy ripeness amidst a tapestry of plush vegetation executed with dense, expressive brushstrokes.  John Singer Sargent, “Pomegranates, Majorca”, 1908, oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 22 inches, anonymous owner, image: FAMSF

Details: “Sargent and Spain” runs Feb 11 – May 14, 2023. The exhibit is free to FAMSF members. For non-FAMSF members, a general entry ticket is required; $28 for adults. Advance reservations are mandatory.