One culinary legend shined a bright light on another in Summerland on Thursday night, when the renowned chef and Chez Panisse restaurant owner Alice Waters opened a golden envelope and announced, “The 2025 Julia Child Award recipient is Bobby Stuckey .” One of the most respected sommeliers in the world, Stuckey cofounded Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado in 2004, and has since become a leader for the entire hospitality industry.
Waters, who was bestowed this very same award in 2024, appeared pleasingly surprised by the news. Due to her recent turn on the Netflix series Chef’s Table: Legends, Waters recently perused the wine collection that Stuckey helped develop during his days at the French Laundry, and it was all of her favorite wines.
The presentation to a small crowd of about 40 people at Godmothers bookstore occurred amidst the ongoing Santa Barbara Culinary Experience , a weeklong collection of food & drink events happening throughout Santa Barbara County. The SBCE is the West Coast offshoot of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts , which is the entity that started giving out the Julia Child Award in 2015. Previous recipients also include Jose Andres, Danny Meyer, Sue Milliken, Tony Tipton-Martin, and Jacques Pepin, among others.