Commenting on the success and longevity of the program, Margrit Biever Mondavi, Vice President of Cultural Affairs said, "A quarter of a century of experience with the Great Chefs program has proven invaluable. Our guests leave the course with new insight into cooking techniques and presentation, knowing that they can now reproduce at home certain signature dishes of celebrated chefs. And the knowledge they gain in wine selection leads to increased enjoyment of fine dining and entertaining."

But for Margrit Mondavi, it has been even more than that. Twenty six years of working side by side with the world's most gifted chefs, has left her with a distinct advantage. Living her life as a work of art in progress, she has accumulated a reservoir of insights. In sharing her thoughts about the weekend with Jean Georges, Margrit glows as she comments, "Jean Georges is one of my favorites. He has genius. His real introduction to the absolute delicacy of the tongue, the balance in the food,& that you could have a great meal for lunch, and you wanted more for dinner."
 
Her respect for genius is apparent as she recollects some of the greatest chefs she has observed. She leans back in her chair and speaks softly as she recollects, "In 26 years . ones most I was most impressed with . . . Jean-Claude Roux, Michel Gerald, Joel Rubichon, Alaine Chapel, they had genius. Jean Georges has genius. Roubouchon, he was big in commercial, but when he went back into the kitchen, he went back into his genius. And Alaine Chapel, he died two years ago, but he was great, he was genius. There are hard workers, and there are great chefs, and there are great creators; and then there are the ones that have genius. . . .

It is something in their presence, you don't have to be told . The way they taste, put the right stuff together, blend, and know, and have a relationship to the ingredients, and then create it, and then others . I've watched chefs that never taste it and you know they don't have genius. And then you had some that almost had it, and then you had some that did very good work, but didn't quite have the genius but were still very good"