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The Saucy Sisters are party girls from way back. Early on, Barbara and Beverly discovered their passion (not to mention aptitude) for eating, drinking and generally spreading good cheer.
As they matured into serious college students, they tried to persuade their respective schools (Beaver College - now known, for a variety of reasons, as Arcadia University - and Baldwin Wallace College) to create courses of study through which they could analyze the effects of outrageously rich foods and divinely fine wines on human subjects.
Alas, their efforts were futile and they were forced to conduct independent studies on their own time outside the traditional classroom.
But, sometimes, practical experience in the real world is the best teacher. And that is how The Saucy Sisters have become the food/wine/party divas that they are today. Barbara started out at a high-powered Washington lobby organization by taking influential Congresspersons out to 4-star restaurants for 3-martini lunches. (Or was it 3-star restaurants for 4-martini lunches?)
Meanwhile, Beverly conducted her own gastronomic research and viticultural investigations at the CIA. (We are talking about the one in Langley, Virginia. And that is why she will never be able to openly discuss the details of her operations.) Before long, Beverly decided to trade in her top-secret clearance for a hard hat and took off for the oilfields of Texas and Oklahoma. Her culinary education there progressed in unforeseen ways. (For one, she became an authority on chicken-fried steak with white gravy.)
Barbara was lured by her then new husband, Paul, to sunny L.A. where she easily transferred her martini skills to power lunches at The Ivy. Ultimately, though, separation anxiety overtook the Sisters. They just had to be together again. Beverly boarded a plane and headed west. By day Beverly toiled in the human resources trenches of Corporate America, and Barbara hawked her PR wares to clients in need. But nights and weekends were devoted to food and drink: Finding it (No shortage of restaurants in Southern California!) Fixing it (How many foods can you prepare en papillote?) Consuming it (Which is why they took up marathon running.) Who knew at the time that all this extracurricular fun would turn out to be research?
Barbara was the first of the Sisters to think about food as a business. Not cooking it. Not selling it. Writing about it! Her first book, Cook It Right, is a handy kitchen reference with 20,000 food facts that the San Francisco Chronicle called, "A book that will solve just about any mid-recipe crisis." But once again the Sisters' fate was influenced by Paul's wanderlust - trading in a secure legal practice in L.A. for a country songwriting career in Nashville. Without a glance back (well, maybe just a glance), the Sisters packed their household goods and jumped on his bandwagon.
It turned out that Nashville was the land of opportunity - food-wise. A once desolate culinary outpost was about to become a hotbed of restaurant activity. The Sisters immediately recognized their calling - to herald this revolution to anyone who would listen. All they needed was a name and a platform. In what seemed only a nanosecond, they landed a radio show and became - The Saucy Sisters. Not content just to broadcast their message and merriment over the radio airwaves, the Sisters branched out.
They authored two books on the Nashville restaurant scene, wrote newspaper stories on food and became familiar sights to TV audiences as they dressed to the nines (if you can call lederhosen or mermaid costumes dressing to the nines) for their restaurant reviews. They entertained live audiences with their sisterly (competitive) cook-offs and legendary restaurant caravans around town.
One evening over dinner in New York with one of their frequent radio guests, the Sisters were enjoying a quite lusty Châteauneuf-du-Pape and engaging in some serious bad-girl chitchat. Suddenly their guest turned to the Sisters and said, "You should write a girl's guide to wine!" Say no more!
The idea became The Saucy Sisters Guide to Wine…What Every Girl Should Know Before She Uncorks, and it was published in March 2004. The Sisters embarked on a national, 30-city, 12,000 mile booksigning/winetasting tour in their Grapemobile, their purple van. Three months of togetherness might have been problematic for some sisters – but not these two. After all, the Grapemobile was filled with wine the whole time.
Having achieved some notice in the wine and book worlds, The Saucy Sisters were asked to write their next book, The Everything Wine Book (October 2005). While the Grapemobile is semi-retired (Barbara uses it for hauling household supplies – and an occasional case of wine), the Sisters are flying between Nashville, Philadelphia and New York to conduct booksigning and winetasting events, as well as hosting wine segments for a Nashville TV show.
In August 2005, The Saucy Sisters launched a series of programs for corporations, trade associations, specialty groups and graduate schools. Their speaking engagements include delivering keynote speeches, conducting wine education seminars at company meetings, hosting receptions, conducting break-out sessions at corporate management conferences and presenting educational dining etiquette seminars for graduating law school students.
More books, more media, more talk? You bet! Keep checking back for updated info on The Saucies!
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