(Originally published in Culinary Portland magazine 2005)
Dick and Nancy Ponzi – Ponzie Vineyards
Oregon’s world-renowned Pinot Noir industry was cultivated with equal parts optimism, patience and innovation. Luckily, enterprising vintners Dick and Nancy Ponzi have these qualities in abundance. When they arrived in the Willamette Valley in 1970 with three children and a few plant clippings, there was little else to reinforce their hunch that Oregon was prime real estate for wine making. However, in the cool and rainy winters and dry, hot summers, the Ponzis saw a unique climate perfectly suited for the complex Pinot Noir grape. It was four years before the first vintage and five more before Ponzi wines received national attention in the New York Times, but the couple toiled away devising new techniques to reveal Pinot Noir’s subtleties and spreading the gospel of Oregon’s culinary secret. Today, internationally acclaimed Ponzi Vineyards continues to introduce new varietals to the region, such as Arneis, an Italian white grape previously unknown in this country. The Ponzis fostered the plant from a single clipping to a five-acre vineyard. Feats such as this are nothing new to the wine makers, however. Nurturing a dream until it becomes a world-class reality is a Ponzi family tradition.
Lisa Schroeder – Mother’s Bistro
Chef and restaurateur Lisa Schroeder’s motto is “eat it until you can’t eat it anymore.” By this she means that one should heartily indulge in seasonal produce until the season stops producing it. For her Portland-based restaurants, Mama Mia and Mother’s Bistro and Bar, this could mean strawberries on waffles, in a crisp, on panna cotta, in a pie, in a salad and even in a cocktail, such as the Naughty Strawberry, from June to September. Oregon’s abundant bounty makes it easy for her to live by this adage, which is deeply satisfying for a former New York chef who trained at the Culinary Institute of America. Besides, her customers expect it. “Oregonians are spoiled and they don’t take it for granted,” she explained. “They have a fierce sense of place and want to eat local products.” At Mother’s Bistro and Bar, local flavors meet international cuisine on Schroeder’s Mother of the Month menu which features recipes from real moms around the world; nothing but home-made, comfort food prepared from the freshest ingredients, just like Mom would make.
