A tribute to Jerry Di Vecchio

On Saturday, July 18, about 85 members and friends of Les Dames d’Escoffier ventured down to the soon-to-be closed Menlo Park headquarters of Sunset magazine for a final tour and luncheon. We of the “Ultra-Secret Jerry Lunch Planning Committee” conspired to honor the great Jerry Anne Di Vecchio as “The Woman Who Fed the West” with “An Edible Tribute to Jerry Di Vecchio.”

The committee – which included Linda Lau Anusasananan, Georgeanne Brennan, Elaine Corn, Mary Gassen, Eileen Joy Spitalny, current Sunset food editor Margo True, and me – selected what we thought were Jerry’s favorite recipes from her 42 years at Sunset, including 40 as food editor.

Everything was prepared by members, with former president Janet Griggs’ Taste Catering in San Francisco making tamale pies for each table, since we discovered there were more than 60 tamale pie recipes in the magazines over Jerry’s tenure. Jerry came by our table, which included Deborah Rogers of McEvoy Ranch, Gig and Mel Owen (an expert on wine label copyrights), Tanya Holland of Brown Sugar Kitchen, and Dolores Cakebread of Cakebread Cellars. Jerry whispered, “Now I realize why I liked tamale pie so much.”

Sonoma’s Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards contributed the Blanc de Noirs sparkling wine for the welcoming reception. Eva Bertran and team are looking forward to Sunset’s test gardens and outdoor kitchen moving across the road to Cornerstone. Wente Winery, which claims to be “the country’s oldest, continuously operated family-owned winery” at 130 years of age, donated the still wines. Marketing director Amy Hoopes serves as group’s co-president with Holland.

Touring the test kitchen with both Jerry Di Vecchio and Margo True was the experience of a lifetime for food folks, learning from them how one of the earliest test kitchens in the country was designed by architect Cliff May (known for the “California ranch house” style) with gardens by Thomas Church. Having been warned by Audrey Chapman that the gardens weren’t what they used to be, I wasn’t quite as surprised as some guests to see few flowers, brown spots here and there in the lawn, and dying shrubs, and not because of water conservation. The developers who bought the place from Time, Inc. are planning a tear-down of the beautiful historic main building and construction of 12-story condominiums.

Still contributing recipes to Sunset, Di Vecchio brought us all to tears (I was assigned to bring tissues for every table) by telling us, with humor through her quivering lips, “I arrived here at 16, and I am leaving at 80.”

An always giving friend and mentor of many of us, she retired as Senior Food Editor in 2002, but she will never really leave.