Chrysa Robertson's Italian heritage taught her to appreciate and love food early on. She spent time in California fine-tuning her culinary skills with Nancy Silverton and Mark Peel at Campanile and at Terra in Napa Valley.In 1993, she fulfilled her dream and opened her own restaurant, Rancho Pinot (along with her ex-partner, Tom Kaufman). Chrysa's uncomplicated yet satisfying cuisine, based on seasonal, locally grown products, has made it on every "best of" list in the region and nationally in Gourmet and Food & Wine magazines. She has cooked at the prestigious James Beard House in New York as a 'Rising Star of American Cuisine' in 1997. Chrysa also started the first Phoenix chapter of Slow Food, an educational organization dedicated to the pleasures of the table and to the preservation and sustainability of regional culinary and food producing traditions.