Growing up on the sunny slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and spending long summers in the dark red earth of Oklahoma, chef and owner John Silva realized early his love for great food and delicious ingredients. And it has been since these early years that you could find him experimenting and exploring in the kitchen.
After working for one of the Bay Area’s finest catering companies through high school, John moved to Santa Barbara where he received degrees in both Psychology and Art. Throughout his time in Southern California he continued to work in kitchens honing his craft. In catering companies he developed his skills with farmers’ market driven produce and working on dive boats he learned the importance of fresh seafood.
Moving back to the Bay Area, he found a position as chef for a farmers’ market association and sponsored by Kaiser Permanente Hospitals spent a year and a half working closely with California farmers and teaching healthy seasonal cooking classes. His recipes and cooking advice can be found in various Bay Area publications and were featured on local radio programs.
After leaving his position with the farmers market, he worked as sous chef in a San Francisco French Bistro as well as working in various other restaurants and kitchens. Believing strongly in diversity, when John is out of his own kitchen he can be found teaching cooking classes at Sur La Table, working as a lead chef staging cooking parties for San Francisco bases Parties that Cook, and teaching nutrition and cooking classes in Livermore school district for a program called Healthy Helpings that he helped develop to serve families in need.
Through all of this, John believes a great life can be seen through great food.