The Judges
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Chef Christy Wolf
Growing up in family restaurants in San Francisco (Seafood) and San Anselmo (Pizza), Chef Christy Wolf’s passion for food and cooking started at a very young age. After graduating from the California Culinary Academy, Christy worked on Jacques Pepin’s Today’s Gourmet and the cookbook associated with the show, Jacques Pepin’s Table; as well as on Martin Yan’s Yan Can Cook. She then went on to work with Paul Bartolotta at Spiaggia in Chicago. While raising her and husband Steve’s four children, Christy found a new calling in teaching cooking to home cooks. She first taught at Judith Ets-Hokin’s The Home Chef in San Francisco and then was the Resident Chef and GM for the cooking school at Sur la Table in Palo Alto. Christy joined Bon Appetit Management Company in October of 2017 as a Teaching Kitchen Chef in Mountain View, CA.
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Chef Ray Tang
As the proud owner of Presidio Social Club in San Francisco, Ray Tang oversees the refined culinary destination, emphasizing the fun side of dining and encouraging regular visits. Presidio Social Club features approachable American comfort food with a California twist and local ingredients. The restaurant boasts thoughtful wine and cocktail programs, as well as expansive, flexible spaces to accommodate any social occasion. While kitchen and service standards remain lofty, Presidio Social Club emulates a comfortable, engaging ambiance. “We have fine dining in the DNA, but we exude casualness,” Tang says. Tang finds the social nature of his job most rewarding, from conversing with guests to collaborating with colleagues and friends, old and new. “I like working with people, being a mentor and a collaborator,” he explains.
“There’s a story behind every decision we make—as a team, we continuously develop ideas that add to or refine the experiences of our guests.” After his family came to the West Coast from Hong Kong, Tang got his start in the industry at age 15, washing dishes on weekends at his family’s Chinese restaurant in Southern California. Heading up the coast to attend San Francisco State University, he graduated in 1990 with a degree in philosophy, but found culinary education thanks to the local PJ’s Oyster Bed, at which he turned his dishwashing gig into culinary opportunity as a fishmonger. After finishing his tasks each day, he asked the chefs to teach him how to cook and they passed along invaluable culinary knowledge. Tang went on to gain formative experiences at acclaimed San Francisco restaurants including Boulevard, from Chef Nancy Oakes, and Postrio, by Wolfgang Puck. For the East
Coast perspective, he took up posts at Lespinasse and Daniel in New York City. In 1998, he opened his first restaurant, Mariposa, in Sonoma, CA; after honing his chef skills in wine country for four years, he then sold Mariposa in 2002 and returned to the Bay Area. Taking over a distinctive piece of property within San Francisco’s Presidio National Park Tang debuted Presidio Social Club in 2006. After abundant successes to the Social Club, Ray opened a nearby eatery and catering arm, Presidio Palms Café, in 2014. “It’s always been in my spirit to do this kind of thing,” he says of his career as a chef and restaurateur.
Reina Cruz
Reina migrated to California in 2004 from El Salvador and has been working for Chateau Cupertino for the past 16 years. She has always loved working with people, but had no intentions of being involved with food. Food was Reina's destiny, as her mother owned a restaurant in El Salvador and her sister was a culinary chef.
Reina helped her mother run the restaurant and it was easy for her to look for a job in the food industry, once in California. Reina worked her way up at Chateau Cupertino. She started filling in for the cook, baker, servers and soon became the lead cook. With the help and support of the manager before her, she came to take her place and run the Dining Services Department. Reina loves food as it is not only her career, but it’s part of her.
