Award-winning Sonoma cheesemaker, chef, cookbook author and culinary educator Sheana Davis, founder of The Epicurean Connection and co-founder of the No Pay Café, also known as Café Gratis, which made hundreds of thousands of meals to feed those in need and those working to benefit the Sonoma Valley and the rest of the region, has died. She was 57.
Davis, who worked with her husband, Sonoma native and wine educator Ben Sessions, is being praised for her humanitarian efforts. She is described by those who knew her as a “trailblazer” and someone who deeply loved the community she called home and worked to better.
“She was never one thing,” Santa Rosa-based writer Shana Bull wrote Monday, Oct. 19, in a Facebook post praising Davis. “Trying to explain everything she did in a short bio always kept me on my toes. There were new accolades to add and adventures in her food & cheese world that I wanted to hear more about. Every time I helped write for her, I came away inspired.
Epicurean Connection owners Ben Session, right, and Sheana Davis handout samples of their goodies at the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce LocalFest 2026 Tuesday, March 31, 2026 at the Vintage House Sonoma. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
Scheana Davis churns homemade butter as husband Ben Session stirs a vegetable dish for delivery at No Pay Cafe/Cafe Gratis, at Epicurean Connection, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
Scheana Davis and her husband Ben Sessions whip up a vegetable dish for delivery at No Pay Cafe/Cafe Gratis, at Epicurean Connection, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)
The Epicurean Connection
Sonoma chef, cheesemaker and culinary educator Sheana Davis got to take a class with the official cheesemonger of the Paris Olympics. (The Epicurean Connection)
Robbi Pengelly/Index-Tribune
Sheana Davis and Ben Sessions joined the crowd who gathered to celebrate Eraldi’s Menswear and Shoes 100 years in business. Photo taken on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023 at the shop’s location on First Street West. (Robbi Pengelly/Index-Tribune)
John Burgess / The Press Democrat
After using a food processor to churn cream into butter, chef Sheana Davis and assistant Lulu Barroso add the curds and whey to cheesecloths for squeezing at Epicurean Connection in Sonoma, Thursday, March 23, 2023. (John Burgess / The Press Democrat)
Chef and author Sheana Davis of the Epicurean Connection, a renowned catering company and retail shop, recently co-authored a cookbook, “Buttermonger.” She will offer a demonstration, tasting and book signing at Sonoma Community Center on Friday, March 21.
Sheana Davis of Epicurean Connection has several new menu items.
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Epicurean Connection owners Ben Session, right, and Sheana Davis handout samples of their goodies at the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce LocalFest 2026 Tuesday, March 31, 2026 at the Vintage House Sonoma. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
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“… And it always came back to community. That included her family, employees, clients and vendors, along with her fellow cheesemakers, her Sonoma neighbors and the people she knew through food and agriculture,” Bull added. “She cared so much about the people she worked with and supported through The Epicurean Connection. She was a powerhouse, and I loved helping her share it all.”
Davis used her considerable culinary skills and connections in the food service industry to fight food insecurity across this region.
In 2017, as wildfires ravaged Sonoma County, Davis and Sessions worked to provide thousands of meals to area residents and first responders — work that lasted 12 weeks and led to the start of the couple’s No Pay Cafe, a grassroots project that relied completely on donations of practical goods, such as 10-pound bags of rice, beans, or pasta, canned tomatoes or a bag of frozen chicken.
In November 2025, in response to interruptions in federal SNAP benefits caused by the then-government shutdown and the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold such funding, Sessions and Davis took action to help local homebound and low-income seniors affected by the lose of these benefits. At the time, more than 40 million Americans were left without monthly food assistance — 43,000 of them in Sonoma County.
As reported by The Sonoma Index-Tribune, at the time, Davis and Session used the kitchen at the Epicurean’s site on East Eighth Street in Sonoma to make soup, stews and other meals. They, along with volunteers, then drove to Burbank Housing’s affordable senior apartments in Sonoma to deliver the food. They provided as many as 100 meals a week to seniors in need across the Sonoma Valley.
It is a service they continue to provide, according to the No Pay Café’s website.
“All tides rise together,” Davis said. “If we all do good in our community, our community will be a better place.”
Will Bucquoy, a Windsor-based photographer, who also lauded Davis, referred to her “generosity and unmistakable heart.”
“Sheana Davis was a trailblazer and a true culinary genius — someone whose creativity didn’t just show up in her dishes, but in the way she moved through the world,” he wrote in a Sunday, Oct. 18, post on Facebook.
“Just like the creations she crafted, everything she touched became richer, infused with her kindness, generosity, and unmistakable heart,” he added. “Always the first to lend a helping hand, she leaves behind a legacy of craft, community, and compassion that will continue inspiring everyone fortunate enough to have known her.”
Davis reportedly died Oct. 12.
The Sonoma Index-Tribune is working on a full story about Davis. This article will be updated.
Dining and Cooking