A common and welcome sight at the winery is Kyle MacDonald, our executive chef. It's Kyle's job to create menus to accompany our wines, because we can't think of a better context than a delicious meal to present our new releases to our distributors, retailers, restaurateurs and members of the press. Born and raised just outside of Boston, Kyle began cooking as a youngster alongside his mother and grandfather. "They were both great cooks," he recalls, "always in the kitchen." When Kyle was in high school, a friend introduced him to a local chef who took on an inexperienced but eager apprentice. "I washed dishes for two weeks, then went to the pantry, and spent three years there," Kyle says. "When I left, I was running the line." A series of jobs led him to Finally Michael's, a small chain of four up-scale restaurants in and around Boston. "I worked all the line positions like sauté cook and grill cook," he says. "I took a turn at each restaurant, then spent a year at their large commissary kitchen, where I learned about excellent high-volume food. We butchered, baked and made homemade pastas, soups and sauces for all the restaurants." At Finally Michael's, Kyle prepared private dinners for Ted Kennedy. At the gala opening of the Sherborn Inn, where he was chef garde manger, Kyle worked with Julia Child and Bradley Ogden in presenting a week of distinctive dinners. Two years later, Kyle was chef de partie at the exclusive Little Dix Bay resort in the British Virgin Islands, where he prepared meals for Lawrence Rockefeller, Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, and Queen Elizabeth. After returning home to work in an "enormous kitchen" in the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, Kyle headed toward California. He stopped briefly to work for chefs he admired – at the Flagstaff House in Boulder, Colorado, the Tack Room in Tucson, and Mary Elaine's at The Phoenician Resort in Phoenix. After nine years in the Napa Valley, Kyle has held positions as saucier at Auberge du Soleil, sous chef at Mark Allen Restaurant, private chef at Domaine Carneros Winery, and executive chef for Starr Caterers. At Artesa, we have happily savored the results of his culinary skills for several years.