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eto's Interview with Nomadic Chef Kevin O'Connor

15.08.24

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3 min read

Meet Kevin O'Connor: chef, author and culinary adventurer based in California's capital. With a passion for all things delicious, Kevin wears many hats - from olive oil sommelier to part-time cowboy, creator to forager. Armed with a knife bag, cameras and a trusty notepad, Kevin opens up about his journey through wine country, his love for analogue photography, and why he believes the past holds the key to future flavours.

How would you describe yourself and what you do?

“Chef” is a bit of a blanket title that covers most of the things that I do and how I go about my life. I grew up in fine dining, opened and ran restaurants and cooked around the world long enough to feel ok giving myself that title. I’ve been fortunate enough to marry my love of cooking and hospitality with travel, story telling, adventure, and the outdoors over the past few years. I’m a chef, an olive oil producer and sommelier, history geek, published author, content creator, and few other things, but at the end of the day hospitality and slowing down to connect people with one another and where we are on this earth is at the core of what I do.

As a Californian I feel a unique responsibility and view myself as a type of prism; I absorb the abundance of a specific region, digest it, and shine it on my guests through stories, food, gatherings, etc. For me the past is the future, and if I can get people to gather around the fire, connect with one another and revel in the present, I’m winning.

We originally found you through your great film photography, what do you think you get out of shooting on film specifically? What gear do you work with?

I first started shooting on film when I started working on my first book, Chasing Harvest. The creative director had spent some time with me in my daily life to understand me as a human, and it turns out we absolutely clicked. He gave me a little 90’s point-and-shoot and told me to randomly capture moments, textures, and feelings, which ultimately made their way into my book to add some authentic perspective. I absolutely fell in love with capturing these moments in such an analogue way.

My art (being food) is presented and gone within minutes, so to have something tangible and lasting had a special draw. From there I continued to geek out on different cameras and film, but currently, I shoot on an Olympus XA and my digital shots are on a Leica D-Lux.

Your roles as a chef and photographer seem to be intrinsically tied to wine and when we spoke before you mentioned you came from a winemaking family, what's your history with the wine world?

I think that all this passion and love in my life for food, wine, art, music and photography boils down to a love and deep respect for self expression. Creating art, whether it’s food, photography, or bottled up as wine, comes down to service; giving the guest and observer something to experience and enjoy with their eyes, palate, heart and soul.

As a kid I grew up on acreage with a small vineyard. My father and I were making Sierra Foothill wines when I was a teenager, which was around the same time I became serious about cooking. I didn’t realize it, but this Mediterranean-nouveau lifestyle was extremely formative, not just for my palate, but for my approach to food and hospitality.

When I was 19 I moved away to the South of France to cook in kitchens that were connected to wineries. Before I could even legally drink in my home country, I felt a strong passion for wine. After returning from France I started a pop-up restaurant in my house and would have my older brother purchase wines for me from my hand written notes. Fast forward another fifteen years and I’m working with some of the best wineries in the United States. My best friends are wine makers and I live within an hour or so from a handful of unique California wine producing regions. To say I’m passionate about wine is an understatement; it’s my blood.