Menus and Music began in the home of Sharon O’Connor when she was the cellist of the San Francisco String Quartet and performing and recording with famous musicians, including Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Linda Ronsadt, and John Williams at Skywalker Ranch.
The Quartet also played music for hundreds of important Bay Area occasions and celebrations that were filled with great music and gourmet food. The Bay Area was, and is, rich in music and culinary talents. Driving home from one of these events, she was thinking about how lucky she was to be a part of this world and decided to package up her life and share it with everyone.
She asked chefs who made food for the events to contribute recipes for her book, recorded the San Francisco String Quartet, and Menus and Music was born!
Eventually hundreds of renowned chefs worldwide contributed recipes, and she and her husband took their two young daughters to Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and throughout the United States to visit these amazing chefs in their restaurants. Sharon went on to produce more than 30 music recordings with Grammy Award winners and other great musicians for Menus and Music.
When Sharon started exhibiting Menus and Music at tradeshows, she saw other creative products that complemented the many themes she had explored in her books and decided to produce a catalog that presented Menus and Music with some of these outstanding products.
Sharon now focuses on creating seasonal collections for the Menus and Music Catalog, and she has a popular online store. This family-owned business offers authentic, delicious, practical, fun, beautiful, and affordable products that you simply won’t find anywhere else. Some product lines, like Avoca Mill, Deruta Ceramics, and Steiff, Sharon came across in her travels, and other things she’s discovered through research. One thing you can be sure of: If it’s in the catalog, it has been vetted by Sharon to be beautiful, useful, or both.
The Menus and Music Catalog is known for its great variety of gourmet foods, inspiring books, well-designed home goods, and meaningful gifts. Sharon is a judge for the James Beard Awards, and she has kept her classical musician’s attention to detail and love of beauty. She’s always looking for things that cause moments of joy and inspiration!