BottleRock Napa’s Williams Sonoma Culinary Stage has grown to attract some of the top names in sports, film and music, and the 2025 edition continues that trend. Tennis great Serena Williams joined country legend-turned-chef Trisha Yearwood to serve up nachos, mix a cocktail and plan a dinner party. The celebrity culinary guest is sometimes there for the party, or enjoy the final dish, but Williams was a fitting doubles partner for Yearwood. Though Williams admitted that, as much as she loves to cook, she really just confines it to family.
“I don’t really have dinner parties…and I don’t have people over,” she said, with a laugh.
The dinner party theme carried through the entirety of the demo, the pair volleying ideas back and forth as they created a layered peach chicken nacho dish. Yearwood’s appearance coincides with an album on the way, as well as a new partnership with Williams Sonoma for cocktail mixer. Maybe the most entertaining part of the show was Williams’ daughter, Olympia, who offered up some sneaky fun along the way.
“My husband says if you aren’t making a mess you aren’t doing it right,” Yearwood asserted, joking about her husband, Garth Brooks.
“I must not be doing it right,” Serena Williams quipped.
“Yeah!” Olympia shot back, getting a big laugh from the crowd.
Williams also quickly held her daughter’s arm down when she raised it high as host and KCBS Foodie Chap Liam Mayclem asked the audience who was ready for a cocktail.
Yearwood and Williams share many culinary similarities, and had enough chemistry to host a cooking show themselves. Each now owns a farm, or in Williams’ case, more of a “large garden.” She joked that it’s not quite to the point of requiring a tractor yet.
“My farm isn’t that big and I don’t want to run over any chickens,” she said. “We pick strawberries every day.”
The now-retired tennis great says she watches what she’s eating a bit more now than she used to.
“I eat healthier now because I’m not burning as many calories, it’s so not fun,” she said. “It sucks to turn 25…”
Williams jokingly invited the crowd to be her next dinner guests as the pair mixed a cocktail, asking Yearwood if she mixed tequila and bourbon.
“If you start mixing tequila and bourbon, you’ll have a lot more dinner guests,” Yearwood joked.
