Total foodie, n. Informal. 1. A person spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about, talking about and eating food. A foodie is someone who reads cookbooks while she's eating. 2. A major wine lover. 3. Kira O'Donnell, viticulture and enology department communications director, as described by her own words.
"I've always been passionate about food and cooking," O'Donnell said.
She fell in love with it all in childhood, when she began cooking casseroles and chicken dinners for her family in Lafayette and helping her grandparents in Humboldt County milk cows and collect fresh-laid eggs on their farm. As a young adult she worked her way into pastry chef and cook positions at top restaurants like Piatti and Chez Panisse.
A desire to add wine to her culinary knowledge led O'Donnell to enroll in UC Davis' viticulture and enology program. After graduation in 1993, she worked in public relations and marketing in the food and beverage industries.
O'Donnell returned to campus two years ago with the perfect mix of skills for her position. Armed with marketing acumen and a technical knowledge of food and wine, she now publicizes the viticulture and enology department's research and accomplishments to campus, industry and the media.
"It's really fun," she said. "There's nothing like getting paid for what you really love."
O'Donnell works in a 25-hour-a-week position in order to spend more time with her family - 5-year-old son, Quaid, and husband, Paul O'Donnell - in east Sacramento.
The arrangement also gives her time to serve as a food critic and recipe tester for Sacramento magazine.
In her latest gastonomic venture, O'Donnell is starting a Sacramento chapter of Slow Food International. The organization promotes - in an increasingly fast-food age - the savoring of meal preparation and mealtimes, occasions best spent with family and friends. For the group, O'Donnell is planning workshops on everything from how a steer is butchered to planting a backyard vegetable garden and baking bread.
Time-stretched working families can embrace the movement in small ways, she said. Instead of buying pesto in a jar, they can purchase the fresh ingredients needed to create the sauce at home. Rather than taking friends out to dinner, families can invite them in for a home-cooked meal.
"Do we go to McDonald's sometime? Yes," she said. "My son is obsessed with chicken nuggets. I don't want to deny him that."
But rather than putting him "in front of Power Rangers" on TV at home, O'Donnell's taught him how to make biscotti and strawberry jam and the pleasures of eating them.
For more information about Slow Food Sacramento, e-mail O'Donnell at kiraodonnell@yahoo.com. To find out more about the slow food movement, go to www.slowfood.com.
What's your favorite part of your job? This is a really exciting department to work for. I'm very proud of it. I love to communicate that to the world.
What's the worst part? There's part of me who would like to be here 100 percent of the time, but I can't because I made a commitment to my family. I struggle with that inside.
What's your favorite place on campus? (The department's) vineyards. Every time I go there I feel so peaceful inside.
What's something that can always be found on your desk? I have a picture of our vineyards in the springtime with flowers growing between the vines. It's gorgeous and very inspiring.
What's your favorite Coffeehouse dish? The tofu with peanut butter and broccoli. I'm a tofu nut.
What pastry do you enjoy the most? Warm pear upside-down cake.
Besides your passion for food, what else do you enjoy? Our family loves hiking and being outdoors. We have a couple of hiking books, and we pick out a hike each weekend to try
What do you picture yourself doing in 10 years? Being the communications director for this department. I'd like to be here forever. I also would like to live in a house on an acre of property so I can have a big garden. •