The route to California from El Salvador via France may not be the shortest, but that was the route of Guillermo and Junny Gonzalez.
In El Salvador, Guillermo had managed a family bakery, and Junny's stepmother is a famed Salvadoran cookbook author, so they both grew up appreciating good food. "My grandmother was from humble beginnings,” Guillermo relates, "She built the bakery with few resources, hard work and much sacrifice." In looking for a new opportunity, Guillermo's business contacts led him to meet the Dubois family of Perigord in the south of France, who offered to teach him foie gras production.
"I told my wife we were moving, and I didn't know for how long," Guillermo remembers. "It was a complete change of life for us. I was not a farmer, but I was willing to learn. My wife and I and our children became part of the Dubois family and part of the life of the small village where they lived. Four agricultural families lived in a cluster of houses, and we all worked cooperatively."
Difficulties prevented the family's return to El Salvador, but they learned that a new culinary trend was growing in California, fueled by chefs such as Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower. On an exploratory trip Guillermo began talking with the University of California Cooperative Extension at Davis and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. They were involved in every step of the business's development, gave him access to the best technology and information, and helped find the farm property.
In 1986 the family moved to Sonoma. They started producing foie gras and magret (the breast of a duck that has produced foie gras), as well as other specialty duck products. "We were a teeny, teeny company with no employees until a year and a half into the business, so the whole family pitched in. The property was perfect: we lived there, raised the livestock there, did our production there."
The ducks on the farm are raised free range for most of their life; their feed is all natural, hormone and antibiotic-free. Guillermo can proudly state, "Our foie gras is a California product made with French traditional, artisanal methods."
"Sonoma Foie Gras is an exceptional culinary and agricultural experience. From the Civil War in El Salvador to the romance of Perigord, to the beauty and new trends of Northern California's wine country – these are all part of the path that has resulted in the best foie gras in America." |
