Actress and producer Elizabeth Olsen recently revealed on a popular YouTube series that she is a Sonoma resident and shared a signature dish from a nearby restaurant during a food-focused interview.
Olsen, best known for portraying Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, in six Marvel movies and a TV series, appeared Nov. 25 on “Last Meals,” a Mythical Kitchen YouTube channel with 4 million subscribers.
On the show, celebrities sit down with host chef Josh Scherer for intimate conversations about life, death and everything in between while eating a multicourse feast featuring dishes that hold significant meaning to the guest.
One of those dishes for Olsen was the XO eggs from Valley Bar + Bottle, the Sonoma restaurant colloquially known as Valley, that has been serving seasonal California cuisine since opening on the Plaza in 2020.
In the video, viewed more than 776,000 times, Olsen presented Scherer with the restaurant’s spicy take on deviled eggs while singing the praises of the Valley owners.
“I live in Sonoma, and my friends have this great restaurant,” Olsen said before giving a personal shoutout to the four co-owners by name: chefs Stephanie Reagor and Emma Lipp, and front of house directors Lauren Feldman and Tanner Walle.
“It’s absolutely delicious,” Olsen said about the dish, made with the restaurant’s take on XO sauce.
Valley owners Lipp and Feldman told The Press Democrat in an email that Olsen “is an incredibly supportive friend and guest” and shared the secrets to her favorite dish.
“XO sauce is a very special, very umami Cantonese chile condiment named for the quality mark on Cognac bottles,” they said.
Traditionally made with Chinese ham and dried scallop, Valley’s version of the sauce instead uses chicken skin, bacon and anchovy-based fish sauce, “ingredients typical of the Valley kitchen,” said Lipp and Feldman.
That sauce goes on soft-boiled eggs sourced from Petaluma’s Silver Sky Ranch for a delectable appetizer.
“It is a simple, delicious snack that is a great way to begin your meal at Valley,” Lipp and Feldman said. “They have been on the dinner menu since day one and are a signature item.”