Sally Schmitt

Sally Schmitt (February 28, 1932 – March 5, 2022) was an American restaurateur who helped launch California's farm to table movement. She was the original chef and co-founder of The French Laundry.

Biography Sally Schmitt was born Sarah Elizabeth Kelsoe in Roseville, California. She grew up on a farm and initially learned to cook from her mother. Sally studied Home Economics at the University of California, Davis and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1952. The following year she married banker Donald Schmitt. Together the couple had five children.

While Don managed the shopping center, Sally took charge of the Vintage Cafe, a burger joint with soda fountain and Napa Valley's first and only espresso machine. Within three years, she had opened The Chutney Kitchen restaurant in a vacant corner of Vintage 1870, designing her own kitchen to use for the restaurant and for making chutney to sell to her customers. Former San Francisco Chronicle critic Michael Bauer called Sally "a true pioneer" not only for being a female chef in a male-dominated sphere, but also for offering an all-California wine list.

The Schmitts later helped operate the Apple Farm in Philo, California with their daughter Karen Bates.

Don Schmitt died in 2017. Her cookbook, Six California Kitchens, was released posthumously in April 2022.