Local author gets rave reviews for cookbook

 

Between Thanksgiving and the last week in December, newspapers from Texas to Florida and Ohio have printed positive reviews for “Fandango,” a cookbook published in late October by Artisan for Santa Ynez residents Sandy Hill, author, and Stephanie Valentine, contributor.

Beginning with a review by Martha Stewart in the foreword, the cookbook also has received credits from The New York Times Magazine and from several authors.

Martha Stewart, in the foreword for Hill’s cookbook, said, “The best word to describe Sandy is intrepid. She is also adventurous, creative and generous. Everyone can learn from these uniquely ‘Sandy’ events. They mark the occasions of our lives, and Sandy shows us how to celebrate with style.”

 

Critics at The New York Times Magazine wrote, “If Santa Barbara County wine country ever needed a poster girl, it could do no better than Hill.”

Heather McPherson, food editor at the Orlando Sentinel, said, “‘Fandango’ by Sandy Hill is filled with far-out themed parties that include no-holds-barred decors and creative recipes for the gourmet cook. You’re bound to find some fun ideas for your own, though no doubt smaller, entertaining plans. Try the Catalonian Pork Tenderloin with Figs.”

Jay McInerney, author of “Bright Lights, Big City,” stated, “To thumb through the pages of Fandango is to enter an idyll, and to imagine a better, tastier and more beautiful life than the one we’ve been living.”

 

Hill said her experiences as an editor traveling through Europe gave her the idea to compile the cookbook, which includes 125 recipes and unusual party ideas. For 30 years, as she worked and traveled, she gathered ideas about exotic foods and parties, putting the best in print with “Fandango.”

Her favorite event began after finding a truffle shaving kit in a little shop in Italy. The salesman told her where to buy the best truffles in Milan, and even though she had never even tasted one before, she took it home to New York and learned how to serve it over hot buttered pasta. Since then it’s become an annual event, she said, with friends who still come to Rancho La Zaca to make it a special occasion.

 

Hill has been an editor for numerous publications, including Vogue, Mademoiselle, Bride’s, Traveler, and USA Today. She also is known for her sporting adventures – she successfully climbed the highest mountains on seven continents, including Mt. Everest, an event she recorded online and on camera for NBC News. She owns Oak Savanna Vineyard in Santa Ynez.

Valentine, chef at Oak Savanna Vineyard, worked at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago before coming to California. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, she was chef at Roxanne’s, a raw food restaurant near San Francisco, before joining Oak Savanna in 2004.