The Eyewitness
Mike Dunne tracks farm to fork from the start
By Gabrielle Myers
July 2025
If the farm-to-fork movement has a scribe who tells the story, the scribe’s name is Mike Dunne.
In 50 years of writing about regional wine and food, Dunne followed the pioneers, witnessed their successes and setbacks, and helped set standards that fortified our position as California’s capital of culinary excellence.
Dunne spent most of those years at the Bee, where he wrote about wine and reviewed restaurants. Along the way he got to know luminaries such as Alice Waters, Julia Child, Robert Mondavi, Randall Grahm and Darrell Corti.
After reporting and thinking about their ideas for a half century, he notes they “continue
to have a lot of influence and set the standards. They have very strong voices within the California wine and food scene.”
Dunne retired from the Bee in 2019, but soon pivoted to other projects, mostly involving wine. A recent work is a book, “The Signature Wines of Superior California.”
The book provides a comprehensive analysis of 50 wines from Amador, El Dorado, Calaveras and Yolo counties, plus wines from Yuba, Placer and Nevada counties. He includes Fiddletown, Shenandoah Valley, Lodi and the Delta, and details specific winemakers and the products that distinguish them.
About two decades ago, Dunne began to distill the city’s embrace of the farm-to-fork movement.
He says, “Sacramento was on the cutting edge of specialty foods and a diverse agriculture within the immediate area.”
It was a time when city boosters realized there was a future in the city’s agrarian past—a region packed with food suppliers and restaurants in a location famous for asparagus and cherries, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini, Sloughhouse corn, olives, squash, grapes and apples.
“Then a couple of things happened that really triggered the movement to make it more expansive and take on more momentum,” Dunne says.
Kurt Spataro, executive chef for Randy Paragary, and Paragary cook Jim Mills started a kitchen garden at 28th and N streets, across the street from two Paragary restaurants. “That was really an innovation that started to generate buzz,” Dunne says.
Mills left to work as a salesman at Produce Express, a delivery service that created a network between local farmers and chefs. Mills “carved out a very effective niche in that he became the link between farmers and restaurateurs and chefs,” Dunne says.
Mills delivered produce and specialty products from the Capay Valley, Sloughhouse and South Sac. He found heirloom tomatoes, varieties of lettuce, different corn strains and heritage vegetables.
“Mills worked on persuading restaurateurs who were increasingly receptive to this notion of capitalizing more on the freshness and the distinctiveness of produce right in the immediate Sacramento area,” Dunne says.
Dunne notes local food co-ops and markets, such as Taylor’s, Corti Brothers and Nugget, helped propel the movement.
Finally, city leaders worked with local businesses to harness the momentum. Major players were Magpie’s Ed Roehr, Patrick Mulvaney of Mulvaney B&L and Sellands Group’s Josh Nelson.
When I ask Dunne what’s next for farm to fork, he says local restaurants should give more attention to regional wines and winemakers.
He sees a scarcity of local wines offered at local restaurants. He would encourage more promotions for regional offerings.
“In their wine list, block out a little section that says, ‘This month’s pick of wines is from Fair Play in El Dorado County, Shenandoah Valley or Amador County,’ and offer three wines, say a white, a pink, a red at a really attractive price,” the writer says.
“These would be wines that are stylistically compatible with their food, but just price them lower than what they usually ask for by the glass and by the bottle.”
For information on Mike Dunne, visit Instagram: @dmikedunne and BlueSky: @mikedunne. He’s also on Facebook and LinkedIn. “The Signature Wines of Superior California” is available at Amazon and local specialty markets.
Gabrielle Myers can be reached at gabriellemyers11@gmail.com. Her latest book of poetry, “Break Self: Feed,” is available for $20.99 from fishinglinepress.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
