When
she was five years old Merrilee Olson sold watermelon juice in Mason jars to
the neighbors, along with tiny pies made with apples from her backyard orchard
and baked in her E-Z Bake oven.
After a misguided college career as an economics major, she returned to
her earliest passion and became a professional chef. She was the opening chef
at Viansa Winery and Marketplace. As culinary director for Bon Appetit
Management Company she developed dining concepts for locations in the U.S. and
Japan. Clients for her recipe development and testing work include cookbook
authors, an award-winning specialty food company and an international spa and
cooking school. At PRESERVEsonoma she works with clients including local farmers, artisan cheesemakers, wineries and restaurants and to create
preserved products sold under each client's label.
“You
could say I’ve come full-circle. Here I am in the kitchen with my Mason jars
again, happily working as a kind of culinary alchemist.”
Sometimes, life really is as good as a bowl of cherries.