DOMINIQUE CRENN OPENS A SECOND SAN FRANCISCO RESTAURANT
Dominique Crenn, the first female chef in the U.S. to earn two Michelin stars, opened a second restaurant in San Francisco on Aug. 11. Petit Crenn, a casual, all-day café in the Hayes Valley neighborhood that offers a five-course seafood-focused prix-fixe dinner, is the little sister to the lauded Atelier Crenn in the Marina/Cow Hollow. The menu at the newest eatery takes its influence from Crenn’s heritage in Brittany, focusing solely on seafood and vegetables, utilizing the bounty of California with classic French preparations and recipes. “The menu [is] like home, like the food my mother and grandmother made, but with local produce and all seafood and vegetables,” the culinary rock star says. “I opened Atelier Crenn as homage to my father, and Petit Crenn is for my mother and grandmother.”
MARGRIT MONDAVI HONORED WITH A ROOM AT WINERY
Margrit Mondavi, the doyenne of Napa Valley, received a very special gift on her 90th birthday when the Robert Mondavi Winery renamed its Vineyard Room in honor of its cultural ambassador for nearly half a century. Timed to her milestone birthday on Aug. 2, the dedication of the “Margrit Mondavi Vineyard Room” recognized the incalculable contributions of the woman who envisioned the winery as a community gathering place for uniting fine wine with fine arts, music and culinary artistry. “Like painting and music, wine and food speak to the heart and contribute to an enhanced quality of life,” noted Mondavi at the private dedication. “It is gratifying to think that I have had a hand in fusing all of these elements together at the Robert Mondavi Winery and to showing the world the goodness that is all around us here in the Napa Valley.”
SHERYL SANDBERG JOINS BOARD OF LATE HUSBAND’S COMPANY
Facebook COO and “Lean In” author Sheryl Sandberg joined the board of SurveyMonkey, the online survey company where her late husband, Dave Goldberg, served as CEO, in July. Goldberg passed in May at age 47 while on vacation in Mexico. In his years as chief executive officer of SurveyMonkey, he helped grow the company to a $2 billion-valuation. Sandberg said in a statement that she planned to “help to realize Dave’s vision of building a lasting company that will impact the way we all do business,” noting that the polling platform is meant to help people “make better decisions.”
JACK MA FORMS ALIBABA GROUP’S MUSIC DIVISION
Jack Ma, the executive chairman and founder of the Alibaba Group, formed Ali Music Group as the wealthiest man in China expands its digital entertainment business. The e-commerce giant said in a statement that the new unit would be “a crucial pillar of Alibaba Group’s digital entertainment strategy” that will “help forward our vision of becoming central to the everyday lives of our customers.” The formation of Ali Music Group includes the integration of two Alibaba-owned music streaming apps, Xiami and Tiantian. On July 20, Ma’s company announced that it was bringing in two veterans of China’s music industry—Gao Xiaosong to serve as chairman and Song Ke as CEO—to run the new division. “It is hoped that the two will creatively disrupt and catalyze the music industry [by] combining their cumulative experience…with Alibaba’s capabilities in the Internet space and Big Data,” Alibaba said in a statement.
LARRY PAGE AND SERGEY BRIN RESTRUCTURE GOOGLE
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin restructured the behemoth company they founded in 1998. On Aug. 10, Page announced in a blog post the creation of a new company, called Alphabet; he is the CEO and Brin the president. Google, along with Xlab, which incubates new efforts like Wing, the drone delivery effort, Ventures and Capital, is now under the umbrella of Alphabet, while some of the far afield companies, such as Life Sciences (which works on
the glucose-sensing contact lens) and Calico (focused on longevity), are not. “Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related,” Page wrote.
News
September 8, 2015Woman Of Substance: Julia Hartz
