Our journey

Motivation to move to Cannon Beach began in early the 1990’s when the owners, Bob Neroni and Lenore Emery first traveled through the beach community on the way to see Lenore’s family in Seattle. After visiting the quaint artsy town, the two daydreamed about the many ways they might live where they loved to visit. And visit they did, every year there after until finally, after building their own beach bungalow in Cannon Beach, they moved in full time spring of 2004.

The idea of opening EVOO was very appealing. Both Bob and Lenore had spent many years teaching or training in the food industry. Both admit that teaching the craft of cooking is one of the most satisfying experiences of their career. When the former little beach cottage became available on the main commercial street in Cannon Beach, their motion to the ocean gained momentum.

Bob Neroni

Bob got his formal education at the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York. But long before he was a graduate of the CIA, it was the influence of his Jewish-Italian family that created his love of cooking. Both Bob’s parents loved cooking and were comfortable in the kitchen. His grandfather owned a Jewish deli on Delancey Street in New York, and his Italian grandparents on his father’s side taught him the family’s Italian favorites. Bob held many prestigious positions as Executive Chef for Lowe’s, L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, Wash DC, The Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers, and Marriott Hotels around the country. Both Bob and Lenore became interested in Share Our Strength, an organization started in Wash DC dedicated to eliminating childhood hunger in our country, and they are still involved today. Other interests include fly fishing, hanging out with their poodles, power dining with other foodies, and shopping the markets of the world. After marrying, Lenore and Bob moved back to Lenore’s home town, Seattle, where he worked as a culinary educator, consultant, and regional director of events & catering for the world’s largest food management company, Compass Group USA. Now that he is back hands-on in the kitchen, all is right with the world.

Lenore Emery-Neroni

Lenore has been a culinary educator all her life and is still enjoying teaching at EVOO. Along with the love of hospitality, designing educational experiences is what she enjoys the most. A graduate of the University of Washington and later University of Maryland, Lenore combined her loves of food, nutrition and hospitality with her degree in education and taught as a chef-instructor in high school culinary arts for several years in Montgomery county Maryland. Bob was one of the Marriott Corporate executive chef team at the time and became a frequent guest chef in Lenore’s classes. She also attended extended culinary classes at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island.  After public high school teaching, Lenore became director of the Childrens’ Kitchen, a whole foods catering kitchen in Seattle, where her clients were barely two and three years old; she was adjacent faculty in the Nutrition department of Bastry University in Bothell, WA; and she served as adviser and trainer in food safety quality assurance for the foodservice vendor at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA.