Chef Jeff Young

Jeff Young, the Wetzel Family Estate’s first resident Chef, originally came to Sonoma County as a boy, spending summers and winter weekends at his grandfather’s “River House”. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chef Young’s cooking style reflects his cosmopolitan, Californian roots.

His fascination with food began in grade school. He realized “If I can read, I can cook,” and at age ten he was in the kitchen after school making popovers. When he was fifteen he was catering parties for his parents and their friends. As a young adult he entered the world of culinary professionals and enrolled in an exemplary program at Cañada College where he studied cooking basics and classics.

From the beginning of his career, Chef Young has worked in innovative restaurants developing fresh, regional cuisine. In the mid 1980’s, drawn by his boyhood memories of Sonoma County and the area’s reputation for small farms and artisan food producers, he moved to the wine country where he has created dishes in the kitchens of fine restaurants and wineries. He describes his cuisine as full-flavored, colorful and fresh. “I love to put a twist on a simple preparation.”

From the kitchen in the estate’s historic Cyrus Alexander Adobe, Chef Young has access to Maggie Wetzel’s one-acre fruit, flower and vegetable garden. At the Wetzel Family Estate, he is realizing every fine chef’s dream: to prepare meals with vegetables, herbs and fruits grown with great care and harvested minutes earlier.

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