The success of the Mustard Seed can be attributed to Paul and Robyn’s attitude of exceedingly hard work. Virtually whenever the Mustard Seed is open, Paul, Robyn and Josh are laboring in the kitchen or out on the dining floor. Robyn explains this is because “Food businesses are the number one businesses that go out of business, and I think that’s because owners are not on property and not making sure that things run properly and not taking care of the food.” Adding to their workload, both lunch and dinner menus are changed weekly, which means the chef is constantly learning new dishes. This requires hours of scrupulous work in order to achieve the Seed’s high-level standards. On top of all this, the Mustard Seed does a great deal of catering in the area ? including many events at UC Davis. They also have a booth at the Davis Farmers Market every Wednesday night, and they manage all financial aspects of the restaurant on their own. Robyn explained, “People think that because you can cook at home you can own a successful restaurant. You need to be a good manager, a good accountant - you need to be a lot of things other than just being a great cook.” This most definitely appears to be the case.

One might believe since the Bergman family spends so much time working around food that the moment they get a chance to relax the last thing they would want to think about is food. However, like true “foodies,” the Bergman family spends their free time taking food vacations, reading food magazines, trying all the new restaurants in San Francisco, and sampling the best of the wine country. Many of the items that end up on