Duskie Estes

... began cooking at the age of five in her EZ-Bake oven. She grew up in San Francisco and is a graduate of Brown University. She has worked at Lucky's/Al Forno (Rhode Island), 21 Federal and Kinkead's (Washington, DC), Green's in San Francisco, and Baywolf in Oakland.

Relocating to Seattle in 1994 to head up a Share Our Strength program, she met restaurateur/chef/cookbook author Tom Douglas and soon accepted the role of corporate sous chef of Douglas' three award winning Seattle restaurants: Dahlia Lounge, Etta's Seafood, and Palace Kitchen. Three years later she moved in to the Executive Chef position of Palace Kitchen and during her two year tenure she was voted City Search's Seattle Best Chef in 2000. Under her leadership, Palace Kitchen was rated by Gourmet magazine as one of the top five Seattle restaurants in 2000 and in the nation's top 50 restaurants in 2001. She was coauthor on Tom Douglas's Seattle Kitchen, which received the James Beard Award in 2001.

In 2001, Duskie and John opened ZAZU in Santa Rosa. ZAZU was named a TOP 10 best new restaurant of 2002 and has been listed in the San Francisco Chronicle's TOP 100 restaurants in 2003, 2004, and 2005. ZAZU was also rated in the TOP 10 Italian Restaurants in Northern California by ZAGAT and TOP 50 restaurants in the Bay Area by San Francisco Magazine. ZAZU has been featured in Decanter, Art Culinaire, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, The Press Democrat, Los Angeles Times, Pinot Report, Wine Country Living, and San Francisco Magazine to name a few. In 2005 Duskie and John opened BOVOLO in Healdsburg. They also released their first wine in 2005, Holdredge Schiopettino, MacBryde Vineyard, which can be found exclusively at ZAZU and The French Laundry.

You can catch Duskie in the ZAZU garden before service gathering squash blossoms with her two little girls.

John Stewart

....is from Mt. Kisco, New York and grew up in the kitchen of his family's four generation catering company, Thomas Fox and Sons, founded in 1919 by his great grandfather.  By the age of 7, he was polishing silver, folding pastry boxes, and icing petit fours with his grandmother. In this environment, John learned fundamental cooking techniques and a strong connection between family and food.

Relocating to Seattle in 1994, John worked at Etta's Seafood and Palace Kitchen, where he met Duskie. He fortuitously was offered the position of sous chef at the well known Cafe Lago, and fell deeply in love with all things Italian. John could easily resonate with the Italian generosity of spirit, the connection between food and family, and the inclination not to waste a morsel ("snout to tail" philosophy).

John is a 1990 graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, an avid gardener, and as of the move to Sonoma, a blossoming chicken farmer. The resulting eggs can be found in the pasta at ZAZU. John is an avid salumist studying with chef Mario Batali and at the University of Iowa Meat Lab. He is responsible for Bovolo's line of BLACK PIG meats, bacon & salumi made from antibiotic and hormone free pork, boar, lamb...

Besides these successful restaurant joint ventures, Duskie and John, married in California wine country in 2000, are the proud parents of Brydie and MacKenzie Estes Stewart, born in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

About Zazu

The zazu kitchen is inspired by the thoroughly American and deep Italian roots of Sonoma County’s wine growing families. The food is innovative but approachable, yet heavily based in combinations that have a culinary history and that work. The nightly changing menus are put together after much thought and research. Duskie likes to update comforting American classics with the best local ingredients Sonoma has to offer (like making an It’s It with her own ice cream and oatmeal cookies dipped in Berkeley’s Scharffen Berger chocolate, tomato soup with a Petaluma’s Bellwether Carmody grilled cheese sandwich, a banana split with a bruleed banana and ginger ice cream, a celadon salad - a wedge of iceberg lettuce with green goddess dressing, avocado, cucumber, and pea shoots).

After training with a Tuscan couple, John likes to prepare authentic and rustic Italian foods. John makes Zazu's pastas daily with eggs he gathers from his own chickens. He is also an avid gardener, growing all the ingredients that go into his ribollita in Zazu's garden to highlight Healdsburg’s DaVero “olio nuovo” fresh from the press in November. Other Italian inspired dishes have included: vin santo braised rabbit with chestnut pappardelle and thumbelina carrots; seared sonoma duck with laura chenel goat cheese gnocchi, black mission figs and saba; or vin santo ice cream with biscotti di Prato.

Finding themselves in the agricultural and viticultural mecca of Sonoma County, with the best ingredients and wine in the world, Duskie and John focus on a menu that is “wine friendly” and uncomplicated. They are committed to the philosophy of finding ingredients as close to the restaurant as possible, harvested at peak ripeness, and doing as little as possible to alter their natural perfection.