Mastro Scheidt at The School House Restaurant and Tavern in Sanger

We're very excited to be working with Chef Ryan Jackson and everyone at The School House in Sanger.

There's an additional connection here...Ferdinand Scheidt, my Grandfather, had a ranch in Sanger and grew grapes and tree fruit in the area over 50 years ago. Tom Scheidt, my Dad, actually participated in events at the original school house (when it actually was a school house) when he was a kid! 

So The Scheidt's have returned to Sanger, in a manner of speaking.

It's been a pleasure getting to know Chef Ryan and his wife Michelle. My family and I first had Chef Ryan's food at Brix in Napa a few years ago. But I'd never met Chef Ryan until earlier this year. 

Chef tastes every wine that comes into the restaurant and I'm happy that we passed the test of his palate.

School House Restaurant & Tavern

1018 S Frankwood Sanger, CA 93657

Phone 559-787-3271 (closed on Tuesday)

Food and Wine Column, April 2012

I was fascinated and perplexed (as were a couple friends, Chef Tommy and John) about the article in the April 2012 edition of Food and Wine Magazine entitled, Oenotri’s Cal-Ital Recipes from Napa written by Daniel Duane. 

 “line cooks prepare every dish on the southern-Italian-inspired menu, all at once,” 

I understand the need to maintain a high standard in the kitchen, but tasting every dish, every day doesn’t make economic sense when the profit margin in restaurants is so thin. Here are the economics of every dish, every day. If I omit desserts and sides from the Oenotri April 7 menu, I’m left with 17 dishes for the line cooks to prepare. The simple average price on the menu of the 17 dishes is $17.44. I’ll assume an average food cost of 35%, certainly not low, but Oenotri is in Napa and the ingredients are of top quality; which produces an average food cost per dish of $6.10; multiply this by 17 dishes and Oenotri spends $103.77 per day in food costs simply to test their line cooks. Oenotri is open seven days a week and I’ll assume they take a few days off of work for major holidays, resulting in the restaurant being open 350 days per year. Multiply the average food cost of $103.77, by the number of days open per year, 350, for a result of $36,321 spent per year testing the line staff. This is exclusive of any labor costs to produce every dish and the assumption that desserts, sides, and lunch items are not tested. 

“Every day, at exactly 4:15 p.m., chefs Curtis Di Fede and Tyler Rodde of Napa’s Oenotri restaurant begin a ritual they call, somewhat prosaically, “tasters.”” 

Oenotri closes for lunch at 2:30 and reopens for dinner at 5:30. I find it hard to believe that at “exactly 4:15pm” just before dinner starts at 5:30pm in a popular Napa Valley restaurant, the line is knocking out 17 dishes just before dinner service on a busy Friday or Saturday night just after a busy lunch service to satisfy the obvious passion, but bordering on obsession, of the owners. 

“the “tasters” give Di Fede and Rodde a chance to ensure that every dish is as delicious as they want it to be”

Some of the most highly respected chefs in America don’t have their staff prepare every dish, every day. There is a degree of trust and training that most executive chefs’ place in their line. The real “taster” is on the line, under pressure, when the executive chef is working the pass in the middle of the second turn of service and the line is “in the weeds” just trying to keep up. That’s when a chef knows who they can rely upon to cook consistently and efficiently.

I respect and admire the chefs' attention to detail and I can understand a little literary hyberbole regarding high standards at Oenotri, but this story borders on myth.