Lights, camera, auction! Hundreds of high-end wines and other coveted items will be auctioned off during an upcoming fundraiser at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.
This year’s edition of A Culinary Event with the California Winemasters will showcase about 75 different California-based vintners, as well as more than 50 international chefs—including a handful employed by two local restaurateurs.
Four chefs representing the Toscana Restaurant Group, co-owned by Santa Ynez residents Mike and Kathie Gordon, will be preparing dishes from their respective restaurants during the event. Mike and Kathie have attended the fundraiser in the past, but their presence at this year’s upcoming event comes with a unique distinction.
The Gordons will be formally honored for their fruitful careers in the restaurant industry, which began more than three decades ago, when they opened their first restaurant, Toscana, in Brentwood.
“I think the rule of thumb at the time was, at restaurants, if they last three years, that’s considered successful,” Kathie said. “So we made it past three years, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, great.’ You know? We made it, and we got to five years, and I thought, ‘Oh, wow, this is even better.’
“Sometimes it’s a complete surprise to think for 33 years we’ve kept a very successful restaurant going in a very difficult market,” said Kathie, who opened Toscana in 1989 with her husband, Mike, and their longtime friend and business partner, Doc Severinsen.
Severinsen is best known as the jazz trumpeter who led The Tonight Show band during Johnny Carson’s reign. Severinson was also the first person to encourage the Gordons to move to the Central Coast, Kathie said.
“He’s the one that pushed Mike all along … ‘Come on, you gotta move up here, you gotta move up here,’” Kathie recalled.
The Gordons moved to Santa Ynez in the early 2000s and debuted their first Central Coast-based restaurant, S.Y. Kitchen, in 2013, led by executive chef Luca Crestanelli. The Toscana Restaurant Group also includes Bar Toscana in Brentwood, Nerano and BG Lounge in Beverly Hills, and Nella Kitchen and Bar in Los Olivos.
Crestanelli, who is also the executive chef of Nella, will join his peers Michele Lisi, executive chef of Nerano and BG Lounge; Miguel Martinez, executive chef of Toscana; and Justino Quirino, executive chef of Bar Toscana, at the California Winemasters event.
Tickets to the food-centric fundraiser are already sold out, but donations are still being accepted to support its beneficiary, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Over the years, the annual event has raised more than $34 million for this organization, dedicated to funding research and drug development to cure cystic fibrosis and providing specialized care to individuals with the genetic disorder.
The Gordons have a personal connection to the nonprofit’s efforts, as a dear friend of Mike’s has a granddaughter who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. In response to being named the honorary chairpersons of this year’s fundraiser, the Gordons described the recognition as a humbling, unexpected surprise.
“We feel greatly honored to be in the community of other well-known chefs and restaurateurs,” Kathie said.
Mike said he felt like the past three decades working in the restaurant industry flew by, and described the couple’s foray into the industry as passionate labor of love.
Before the couple decided to pursue owning their own restaurant during the 1980s, Mike worked as a business manager, with LA-based clients in the entertainment industry, and Kathie’s background was in marketing and publicity.
Given Mike’s previous line of work, it seems fitting for the Gordons to be honored during an event held in the outdoor backlot of a prestigious movie studio, although Mike “never spent much time on a set,” he said.
“Most of Mike’s clients were more like writers and producers,” Kathie said.
Accompanied by their Australian Labradoodle, Bruno, who can often be found scurrying around the vineyard property outside the Gordons’ front door, Mike and Kathie continue to call the Santa Ynez Valley their home. They said they treasure the relationships they’ve made with friends, neighbors, and colleagues since first moving up from LA.
“Because this is a smaller community, it’s been nice really getting to know so many people here in the valley and being part of the valley life,” Kathie said.
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood would love to sneak onto a set at Warner Bros. Studios. Send comments to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 5-12, 2022.
