Local Culinary Legend Narsai David Leads Us Down East Bay’s Food Memory Lane
Story by Rochelle Lefkowitz, Photos by Nancy Rubin and Peter Sussman
Despite PG&E power shutoffs and the flu season’s start, over 150 Ashby Village (AV) members, volunteers, donors and friends filled the social hall at Berkeley’s Unitarian Universalist Church (UUCB) on Saturday, 10/26. The occasion? Our latest Arts & Culture Series (A&C) event: a special AV 10th Anniversary whirlwind tour of the East Bay’s gastronomic transformation, led by global food icon Narsai David, followed by a reception that he helped to make so memorable.
After a warm welcome from A&C and AV Board Member Betty Webster—also a member of the UUCB—our speaker was introduced by his dear friend Martin Paley, former San Francisco Foundation ED, now a key member of our Village’s Development Team.
Then, with his extraordinary hour presentation of “My Life in Food”, Narsai David regaled us with memories so vivid, we could almost taste them.
And what a treat it was! With an impish grin and his signature bow tie, the world-renowned restauranteur, chef, winemaker and author shared his historic 50+ year journey.
He began with a quote from poet Owen Meredith’s Lucile (1860):
“We may live without poetry, music and art,
We may live without conscience, and live without heart,
We may live without friends, we may live without books,
But civilized man cannot live without cooks!”
First, he took us back to his start in his Assyrian mother’s kitchen (“she had no daughters”), peeling and canning 100 quarts of tomatoes and prize-winning peaches each summer with his two brothers, and to his introduction to fine wines as a Cal freshman. Narsai David soon realized that food was his future. “I ran away from it for a long time; I planned to marry and have children and the hours were too long, the work too hard”, he confessed. “But I love people, food and wine and it just feels good to make people happy!”.
After stints in a cannery, as a soda jerk and as a server amidst carhops on skates, from 1959-70 David worked with Henry Rubin and Ed Brown at Berkeley’s Potluck. Many in our audience recalled with great delight our town’s first European-style restaurant. In 1972, he launched Narsai’s Restaurant, Market and Catering businesses, which, until 1985, became a culinary mecca for gourmet diners world-wide. The restaurant’s menu listed 400 wines. The New York Times once called it one of the 10 Best Winelists in the World. David still owns his own Napa Valley vineyard, where he produces an outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon.
Gourmet Magazine credited David and his contemporary, Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, with pioneering California Cuisine, which he described to us as “French sauté cooking with local, in season ingredients”. He told us how harvesting mussels off rocks in Half Moon Bay provided public health officials with samples to monitor the coast’s toxic red tide.
David then reminisced about his secret recipes for mouthwatering desserts like the Avalanche, Mudslides and Lemon Spots—Berkeley’s madeleines. His shared tales of catering for rock concert promoter Bill Graham’s large-scale outdoor dining experiences, like the Thanksgiving Dinner for 3,000 for The Band’s “The Last Waltz” performance, and about cracking 6,000 eggs for a massive New Year’s Breakfast.
But David didn’t stop there. He went on to blend his love of food and philanthropy to serve some of the East Bay’s finest nonprofits. A founding board member of the Berkeley Repertory Theater for 17 years, his Narsai’s Toast to the Arts were a series of sensational fundraisers at the Claremont Hotel. Over the years, he flew in chefs from Paul Prudhomme to Wolfgang Puck. In his early years on San Francisco’s KCBS radio, he had callers tasting the wine he and his guests were trying. As KCBS Food & Wine editor, he still hosts a weekly Saturday show today.
When David explored his Assyrian ancestry, he helped uncover clay tablets from 1900 BC. Some contained recipes for over 800 food items—more than 300 types of bread, 100 varieties of soup and 20 kinds of cheeses, many shaped like body parts. He later raised the funds for a statue of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal, who had the world’s first library that now sits near San Francisco’s Main Library. His new project? A sculpture of Queen Samu Ra Mat, a 9th century Assyrian woman, “a powerful, wise ruler, the first woman to rule an empire in her own right”.
David then gamely answered our questions, from, “What’s the best wine to serve with fried catfish (“Chardonnay”) to “What were his favorite East Bay restaurants?” (“Chez Panisse, Lalime’s and Corso”). He critiqued contemporary dining trends, from “Fast Casual” to ordering in instead of eating out, and staring at screens instead of talking across the table. He ended with a nod to his forthcoming book, a sequel to “Monday Night at Narsai’s”, to be entitled “Every Night at Narsai’s”. He closed by restating his lifelong goal: “to share the simple pleasures of cooking, food and wine through education”.
After our Executive Director Andy Gaines’s rousing remarks about our 10th Anniversary, we experienced Narsai David-hosted warmth and comradery at a special Ashby Village 10th Anniversary wine and cheese reception in the cozy Fireside Room, for which our speaker generously donated all the extraordinary wine. Sipping his wine, and savoring his stories together enhanced our enjoyment of the event’s food for thought—and of each other.
As part of the afternoon’s trifecta, we also bid on AV’s first silent auction. It showcased contributions from Chez Panisse and Corso’s, Saul’s and Lucia’s Pizza and other restaurants, an overnight stay and breakfast at the Claremont Hotel and Berkeley Rep tickets. Thanks to your generosity, we raised over $5,000 for our beloved village, including for our “It Takes A Village” membership subsidies.
Our thanks to all the AV volunteers whose hard work made this wonderful presentation, reception and silent auction such a success. To the Arts & Culture Team—co-chaired by Marcia Freedman and Rochelle Lefkowitz, with Joanne Carder, Sigrid Duesberg, Irene Marcos and Betty Webster, and this time, Joan Cole. To our Greeters, Eileen Levin, Sharon Paik, Gordon Seligson and Kristin Holland, Photographers Nancy Rubin and Peter Sussman, and Q&A Runners Pat Kirkpatrick, Joanne Carder and Dawn Mezzo. And to our new AV staff members, Su-Yin Bickner and Erik Whitaker.
Special thanks to Wine and Cheese Reception and Silent Auction organizers Helen Hansel and Diane Meltzer and to everyone who helped collect the auction items-- and UUCB’s gracious and patient Program Coordinator Lissa Roos Parker. To all, our heartfelt gratitude!
