It’s hard to believe, but Georgette Nelson didn’t come from a foodie family. The former chef and Redwood City resident runs Kitchen Table Travel, and even if you haven’t been on one of her food tours in Italy, you might have spotted Georgette and her distinctive set of wheels. Her tiny Piaggio Ape truck, known as Large Marge, displays Georgette’s carefully selected array of unusual cheeses, charcuterie and other gourmet treats, at both private and public events.
Georgette grew up in San Bruno with a father in the military and a mother who worked swing shifts as a nurse. Cooking was not a priority in their house. “If you have three kids and you’ve worked all day, you don’t want to deal with making dinner,” she says of her mom. Dad liked to cook but his repertoire consisted of “super unhealthy things” he’d learned in the Navy. “It was all very, very basic,” Georgette recalls. “I had never really tasted fresh food.”
That changed when Georgette took a solo trip to Italy in her early 20s and experienced a culinary awakening. “I think I ordered a steak with peppercorns on it. It’s so silly and so simple, but my palate had never had anything like that,” she says. Georgette marveled at how even the humblest of fare is treated with respect. “I stayed at a hotel and they brought coffee—a pot of espresso and the other pot was half cream and half sweetened condensed milk, steamed together. Who knew there could be such joy in having coffee in the morning?” she laughs.
Georgette’s dream of becoming a cook took root in Los Angeles, where she was an assistant to the editorial director of Out and Advocate magazines. “I worked with so many amazing people who were just driven by passion and love,” she says. “So I decided to go to culinary school and pursue a passion of my own.” Georgette worked at restaurants and hotels in LA, then came back to the Bay Area and got a chef job at Google. “Chef life is difficult,” she admits. “Even with the nice hours at Google.” Now that she works as a buyer for a produce company who specializes in cheeses, her workday starts early in the morning (“fishmonger hours”) and ends at 2PM.
That leaves Georgette’s afternoons free to walk her dog and pursue her current passion project: Kitchen Table Travel. “I arrange food trips and culinary tours for myself. And a good friend said, ‘Why don’t you do it as a business?’” Georgette recounts. Mindful of Italy’s overtourism woes, she schedules small-group trips in the off-season, leveraging her culinary connections. “Anyone can pretty much arrange a food tour in the city,” she says. “So we like to go to the countryside to meet the people who do things the traditional way, and put money in their hands so we can help keep those traditions alive.”
Why Italy? Well, why not? “It is the greatest place to eat,” Georgette says. “Everything there food-wise is treated with respect about where it comes from, about its history. The food tells a story about the people, a place, a time—even the economic circumstances behind how food is made there.”
It was on a tour of the Sicilian city of Catania when Georgette’s sister-in-law and business partner Cat Nelson got the idea for Kitchen Table Travel’s eye-catching cheese-mobile. People were selling produce out of Apes, the workhorse cousin to Italy’s famous Vespa scooters. “I’m an introvert, but I also really love talking to people about food,” Georgette says. “The idea of getting out in the community and having my own little chunk of something was so enticing … I decided to go for it.”
Georgette began building a following selling hard-to-find cheeses and artisan foods out of Large Marge on weekends. “We stick close to the area. She goes 25 miles an hour. I think she would tip over if she went faster,” she says. “I’ve been creating my own little community of other business owners and friends, people who are crazy about food, people who show up for cheese.”
Find Georgette and Large Marge at La Honda Winery on Saturday, July 19, 2025 from noon to 4PM, for the Open Day Wine Tasting, where she’ll be selling cheese and charcuterie boxes. You can also find Large Marge at the monthly Friends with Denim “pre-loved fashion” pop-ups.
The selection is constantly changing. “We try to focus on cheese that you don’t normally find in a grocery store, but nothing too esoteric,” says Georgette, who bubbles with enthusiasm when she talks about food. “People are very afraid of cheese and cheese should not be scary at all,” she says. “We are there to talk about cheese in a fun, approachable way … Come and ask any kind of question, and taste it!”
Make It
This after-dinner cheese course is sure to impress. Georgette garnishes it with a sprinkle of rosemary almonds and a dollop of Nancy Cantisano’s plum-almond jam.
TRIPLE-CREAM CHEESECAKE Toffee Graham Crust 1½ cups fine graham cracker crumbs ¹/³ cup cane sugar 6 tablespoons melted butter ½ teaspoon cinnamon Heat oven to 375 F. Mix together all ingredients and pat into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 7 minutes. Let cool completely before adding filling. Filling 32 ounces triple-cream cheese, such as Brillat-Savarin, Delice Bourgogne or Delice Cremeux, with the rind removed 1 cup cane sugar ²/³ cup sour cream 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon salt 4 large eggs, lightly beaten Plum-almond jam and toasted rosemary almonds (optional: Find jam at Kitchen Table Travel) Heat oven to 325 F. In a mixer, lightly beat the cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and mix until smooth. Add the sour cream, vanilla and salt, scraping the sides of the bowl, until well-combined. Gradually add the lightly beaten eggs (a fourth at a time), mixing on low speed until just incorporated. Pour batter into the cooled crust and place the springform pan on a cookie sheet. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Remove from the oven when the edges are browned and the middle is still jiggly. Let it cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Note: Make toasted rosemary almonds by gently heating raw sliced almonds in a pan with a sprig of rosemary, a dash of black pepper and a splash of olive oil. Keep the almonds moving constantly until desired color is reached.