Meet Anatoly and Katherine Vorontsov of Cured and Cultivated in Paso Robles. Voyage LA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anatoly and Katherine Vorontsov.

Anatoly was born in Kamchatka, Russia in 1984 and spent most of his childhood growing up in a city southeast of Moscow. After meeting Katherine in London in 2013, he immigrated to the US upon their marriage. Katherine, originally from the Texas Hill Country, had a career in the wine industry, so the newlyweds decided to move to Paso Robles to start their life together. Both avid foodies, they share a passion for discovering new flavors from around the world.

As a new American resident, Anatoly began working for a small, family-owned European deli in Arroyo Grande. It was here that he was able to access many of the same cured meats that he grew up enjoying in Russia. He also realized that most Americans, although accustomed to Italian or Spanish meats, were unfamiliar with the types of salamis from Eastern Europe and beyond. During his time at the deli, where he eventually became manager, he enjoyed educating customers on the different cured meat styles and introducing them to new delicacies.

In his free time exploring the Central Coast wine region, Anatoly noticed that most wineries did not offer food to their customers. Knowing the food enhances the wine experience, he realized the necessity for tourists to have access to food while tasting wine all day and the demand for easy, convenient food products in wineries.

Taking the initiation to attain his own America dream, Anatoly established Cured and Cultivated in 2015, specializing in pre-sliced and beautifully presented cheese & charcuterie plates. Understanding the importance of making the plates last as long as possible in a deli case, he implemented a method of vacuum sealing the plates with inert gas, increasing the shelf life to up to 4 weeks. He quickly gained a plethora of winery clients and expanded his product offerings to include custom cheese pairing plates, hummus plates, caviar pairing boards, and an assortment of artisanal olives, nuts, dried fruits, crackers, and baguettes.

The next exciting phase of Cured and Cultivated has been promoting grazing tables for private events and weddings. These are immense, intricately designed boards that create a visual feast for the eyes and the taste buds. Sometimes taking up to 5 hours to assemble, Anatoly enjoys playing with shapes, forms, textures, colors, and of course flavors to design the best presentation to elevate a special occasion.

With the growing interest and expansion, Anatoly’s wife, Katherine, has recently joined the team full time to help with the day-to-day operations and take Cured and Cultivated to the next level. Now a true family business, the couple hopes that their daughter, Zoia, will one day become involved as well. However, Zoia is only 11 months old so it will be a while before she is slicing gruzinskaya salami!

The future of Cured and Cultivated includes expanding to e-commerce, allowing for online ordering for local pick up and delivery of our cheese & charcuterie plates as well as a curated selection of meats, cheeses, and garnishes for people to build their own boards at home. Anatoly and Katherine hope to be able to one day ship across the country.

Anatoly’s determination, saavy business skills, creativity, and unique sense of humor will help the family business continue to grow. He jokes that soon they will need to translate Cured and Cultivated into Mandarin!

Has it been a smooth road?
It was difficult at first to convince wineries to try something new and there was doubt about this long shelf life.

It has also been at some times challenging to break into the market and go up against our main competitor, who has a long-time established cheese shop in the region.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Pre-sliced cheese & charcuterie plates shelf life to up to four weeks.
Custom cheese pairing plates
Hummus plates
Caviar pairing boards
Grazing tables

Our presentation sets us apart from others. Our plates/boards are attractive and visually appealing. Our grazing tables are like 1,000 piece puzzles that always astound guests.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Paso Robles is a great area for our business since many wineries need this type of service and product.