A native Californian, Sharon O’Connor spent her childhood preparing to be a classical musician. She also spent many happy hours learning to cook in her grandmother's kitchen. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with degrees in music and sociology, O’Connor trained at the renowned Amsterdam Conservatory of Music. Along with studying Baroque music with master teachers, O’Connor spent several months traveling throughout Europe and learning about good food. She returned to California with a new resolve—to create a life that involved both passions, food and music.
In 1975, OÂ’Connor founded the San Francisco String Quartet. For sixteen years, the quartet performed in the Garden Court of the Palace Hotel, which has been called "the most beautiful dining room in the world." In her years as a performer in the San Francisco Bay Area, OÂ’Connor also worked with famed musicians such as Frank Sinatra, Van Morrison, Tony Bennett and Linda Ronstadt, and recorded with the American Conservatory Theater, Aretha Franklin, John Williams, and for numerous Hollywood film scores.
After almost 10 years of performing in concert halls and at elegant dinner parties and gala events, OÂ’Connor discovered a way to combine her loves for food, music, and travel. Driving across the San Francisco Bay Bridge after playing for a gala, she thought about how people always enjoy the combination of great music and fine food. Her first Menus and Music volume was a cookbook of recipes from famous San Francisco restaurants paired with a recording by the San Francisco String Quartet.
Eighteen volumes later, Menus and Music is a flourishing independent publishing company and music label, a rarity in a market dominated by chains and multi-national corporations. OÂ’Connor, who travels the world researching each cookbook, is an expert in adapting professional chefsÂ’ recipes for the home cook. Equal time is devoted to meeting with other musicians, mixing, arranging, editing, and performing the music on the compact discs.
Sharon OÂ’Connor lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her two daughters and husband. Her family enthusiastically helps in the research, travel, and tasting for her series.
