YEAR: 2004
As a sixteen-year old exchange student, Rodgers had the good fortune of switching places with one of the daughters of the Troisgros family, a well known restaurant dynasty in Roanne, France. In return for making the arrangement, a neighbor asked Rodgers only to write down the recipes she watched the Troigros chefs, a sister and an aunt used every day. Rodgers did, and when she came back to the U.S., she made multiple copies of her valuable treasure.
But cooking didn’t emerge as a career option until later; after earning a degree in art history from Stanford University, Rodgers was introduced to Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, and filled in during lunch service for the pioneering chef during her sabbatical. The experience was life-changing, and after her own sabbatical in Europe, where she spent time in a rustic French restaurant, Rodgers knew she wanted to open her own restaurant. She knew it would continue the legacy of what she learned from her two experiences in France: that local, fresh ingredients should dictate a meal, and that cooking in its purest form is about marrying those ingredients into a simple yet satisfying homage to taste and culture. That’s exactly what she found in San Francisco, as head chef and co-owner of Zuni Café.