Author: Alfredo Casuso

Chef Joe Sasto

From a very young age, Joe Sasto knew that he wanted to be a Chef. Sasto’s mother had always recognized his talent, passion, and love of the culinary arts. Learning to cook by his mother’s side, Joe became ignited when in the kitchen. After earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Davis, Sasto dove headfirst into the culinary and restaurant industry, training under some of the Bay Area’s most respected and honorable Chefs. After traveling through Europe, Sasto brought his inspiration to Quince Restaurant. It was at Quince in San Francisco where Sasto’s passion for pasta truly began. Under Chef Michael Tusk, Sasto was trusted to manage the handmade pasta program, learning the traditions and roots from one of the world’s most celebrated, Italian-influenced chefs. Later, during his time as Executive Sous Chef at Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Sasto maintained his strong, cultivated relationships with local farmers, showcasing the beautiful produce of California. A natural leader, Sasto quickly became recognized for his abilities, respectfully contributing to the rise of restaurants such as two-Michelin starred Lazy Bear, and three-Michelin starred Quince. A very driven Chef, Sasto has opened restaurants as Executive Chef in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California.

In 2017, Sasto began focusing on pursing the goal of opening his own restaurant, traveling the country hosting private events, fine-dining dinner parties, pasta classes, and pop-up feasts. When the global pandemic began in March 2020, Sasto ceased travel and pivoted. Chef Joe started to virtually teach both public and private livestream pasta lessons weekly, consulting with brands, curating food-focused content, and developing recipes, all while garnering a strong social media following. Sasto excelled due to his passion for food, as well as his ability to connect with others through music, his personality, and an approachable culinary lens.

Recently, Sasto launched his limited production and highly coveted focaccia popup, Luna Focacceria. Chef Joe also developed a high-end customizable pasta and pizza tool line with well-known knife maker and blacksmith Doghouse Forge. Sasto is currently set to release a puffed pasta snack line, entitled TANTOS, and is working on his first cookbook. You may recognize Chef Joe from networks such as The Food Network and Bravo, have seen his win on The Food Network’s “Chopped”, and has seen him compete on NBC’s Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars. Joe was recently featured in Food Network’s inaugural “Hot List” 2022. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Friday, October 6, 2023 

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org   

*** PRESS RELEASE*** 

SAN FRANCISCO SURPASSES $20 MILLION FUNDING GOAL FOR NEXT MONTH’S APEC CONFERENCE   

City reaches goal ahead of time with support from local corporate partners, philanthropists, and will continue to work to raise more support for international meeting  
  

San Francisco  – Mayor London N. Breed announced today the City of San Francisco has already eclipsed its committed fundraising goal of $20,0000,000 to host the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC. The City will continue to work to raise more funds beyond this goal in preparation for the week-long conference that will be held November 11-17 and host leaders and delegates from 21 APEC Member Economies, 1,200 global CEOS, hundreds of journalists, and more than 20,000 in total attendance.   

The theme of the event, “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” will promote free, fair, and open trade investment, and advance sustainable and inclusive international economic growth. President Joe Biden is expected to attend along with the leaders of China, Japan, Australia, Canada and Indonesia. The APEC region represents more than $60 trillion in nominal GDP, accounting for 62% of the global total output.   

Major sponsors that contributed include:   

• Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria: $4.65M  
• Ripple: $2M  
• Apple: $1M  
• Emerson Collective: $1M  
• Kaiser Permanente: $1M  
• MEBO International: $1M  
• Prologis: $1M  
• Salesforce: $1M  
• Sutter Health: $1M  
• Visa: $1M  
• Bloomberg Philanthropies: $500K  
• Airbnb: $500K   
• Autodesk: $500K  
• DoorDash: $500K  
• Jean-Pierre Conte: $500K  

“The San Francisco community has stepped up, like it always does,” said Mayor London Breed. “The support and enthusiasm building across our City is inspiring. Reaching our fundraising goal this early is a recognition of how strong and resilient we are, and we are going to keep going to raise even more. APEC is going to again put us on the world stage, and we are ready to put on a tremendous event, reminding the world that San Francisco is one of the world’s truly great cities.”   

To learn more, visit apec2023sf.org.   

APEC in San Francisco     

APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) is the premier platform for the United States to advance economic policies in the Asia-Pacific region to promote free, fair, and open trade and investment and advance inclusive and sustainable growth. As part of our enduring commitment to the region and broad-based economic growth, San Francisco is excited to serve as host of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting taking place in San Francisco, November 11-17, 2023.    

APEC will be the largest convening of world leaders in San Francisco since the UN Charter was signed in 1945 during the UN Conference on International Organization, also called the San Francisco Conference.    

This November, the United States will chair the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting in iconic San Francisco, California. The 21 APEC Member Economies account for nearly 40 percent of the global population and nearly 50 percent of global trade.  APEC’s themes this year are sustainability, inclusivity, innovation, and resilience.    
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media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

Dezart Performs 12 Desert Star Awards:
Most Ever For Esteemed Palm Springs Company 

Winners Were Announced By The Desert Theatre League October 1
in Live Ceremony at Sun City Palm Desert

www.dezartperforms.org

3 October 2023 – Palm Springs, CA: Call it the “Little Theatre Company That Could” and does. Now in its 16^th season Dezart Performs of Palm Springs (www.dezartperforms.org) won a recording breaking 12 Desert Star Awards – the most ever for the company – including top prize for “Outstanding Drama – Professional for A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY UNIT AT THE MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY and “Outstanding Comedy – Professional” for A BRIGHT NEW BOISE.  

“I am always humbled when not only our audiences but the Desert Theatre League judges acknowledge the quality of our work” said Dezart Performs Founding Artistic Director Michael Shaw. “And the fact that many of our awards were in the top main categories is particularly gratifying.” 

The complete list of “Desert Star Awards” winners for Dezart Performs are as follows:

Outstanding Production – Comedy – Professional
A BRIGHT NEW BOISE

Outstanding Production of a Drama – Professional
THE GARBOLOGISTS

Outstanding Director of a Comedy – Professional
Michael Shaw, A BRIGHT NEW BOISE

The Michel Cruickshank Award for Outstanding Director of a Drama – Professional
Michael Matthews, CHOIR BOY

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy – Professional
Eric Zak, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE…

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy – Professional
Nicole Delsack, A BRIGHT NEW BOISE

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama – Professional
Dennis Renard, CHOIR BOY

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy – Professional
Jacob Cherry, A BRIGHT NEW BOISE

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama – Professional
David Alan Madrick, CHOIR BOY

Outstanding Stage Design – Professional
Jimmy Cuomo, THE GARBOLOGISTS

Outstanding Props
Greg Thorneycroft, THE GARBOLOGISTS 

The Bill Groves  Award for Outstanding Original Writing
Lindsay Joelle – THE GARBOLOGISTS

Details about the upcoming 16th Season for Dezart Performs follow:

THE THANKSGIVING PLAY

A comedy written by Larissa FastHorse

Directed by Michael Shaw
November 3-5; 10-12, 2023

Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.

“Hilarious. A cheerfully cutthroat production!”
– The New York Times

“Hysterically funny and brutally on target.”
– Forbes

“A hilarious envelope in which [the playwright] delivers a brutal satire about mythmaking, and thus, in a way, about theater itself.”
– The New York Times

*    *    *

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME

A dramatic comedy written by Heidi Schreck

Directed by Craig Wells
January 19 – 21; 26 – 28

2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist
2019 Tony Award nominated, Best Play
2019 Obie award for Best New American Play
2019 Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Best New Play
2019 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Play

Fifteen-year-old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives.

“…brilliantly crafted show, harrowing and funny and humane, that accesses the political through the deeply personal.”
– New York Magazine

“A highly entertaining, deeply informative and ultimately hopeful examination of the document that impacts every single one of us, every single day of our lives.”
– Chicago Sun Times

“This funny, tragic and deeply unsettling one-woman tour de force shows who the US constitution serve — and who it lets down.”
– The Guardian

*    *    *

A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

A drama written by Samuel D. Hunter

Directed by Michael Shaw
March 1-3; 8-10

2022 Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play

A CASE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD unfolds in a cubicle where two seated people unexpectedly choose to bring one another into their fragile worlds. Keith, a mortgage broker, and Ryan, a yogurt plant worker seeking to buy a plot of land that belonged to his family many decades ago, realize they share a “specific kind of sadness.” At this desk in the middle of America, loan talk opens up into a discussion about the chokehold of financial insecurity and a bond over the precariousness of parenthood. With humor, empathy and wrenching honesty, Hunter commingles two lives and deftly bridges disparate experiences of marginality.

“Must-see heartbreaker of a play!”
– The New York Times

“Another extraordinary play by Samuel D. Hunter!”
– New York Stage Review

“Easily one of the best of the year!”
–The Wall Street Journal

“…one of the most moving new plays of the year!”
– TheatreMania

“‘A Case for the Existence of God’ Finds What Connects Us All and Holiness in Humanity.”– The Observer

*    *    *

MR. PARKER

A drama written by Michael McKeever

Directed by Randy Brenner
April 12 – 14; 19 — 21

At 54 years old, Terry Parker finds himself at a crossroads in his life. After the loss of his partner of 30 years, he finds himself suddenly single and unable to adjust to a world that has moved on without him. After a night of heavy drinking, he wakes up with a 28-year-old bartender-slash-Uber-driver. These two very different people begin a tentative relationship, and what starts out as a one-night stand becomes a journey of self-discovery for a man trying to let go of the past and move forward, while dealing with the pressures of being middle-aged, gay and alone in the ever-changing landscape of today’s America.

“A very intelligent, absorbing look at contemporary relationships and the conflicts that keep us all from aging with joy and peace of mind. This play is a real discovery!”
– Rex Reed

“The protagonist of this new play by Michael McKeever steps gingerly out of grief’s stasis and into the unknown.”
–The New York Times