Bean Freak
Steve Sando and His Passion for Beans
“Until you get into it, it's like having someone tell you about their dreams. It's like, ‘Really, you're gonna do this again? I don't care.’ And then you have [the beans] and you’re like, ‘Okay, now I get why you're so weird.’”— Steve Sando
In Napa Valley, a region known for its vineyards, Steve Sando is known for his beans.
“We were always focusing on European wines, vinegars, and charcuterie,” Sando tells me in our interview. “But [beans] were here all this time… and we didn’t even notice them.” Move over, grapes.
As the founder of Rancho Gordo (translation: “the fat ranch”) and author of six bean-themed books, Sando has revolutionized how people think about (and cook) this understated (and, in his view, underappreciated) food. What started in 2001 as a modest 300-pound production has blossomed into a global bean empire with a cult following, distributing over 500,000 pounds of heirloom beans around the world each year. Every quarter, members get a different box with half a dozen bags of beans plus recipes for how to creatively include them in soups, stews, salads, and more.
But Sando has built more than just a bean distribution engine. With a Bean Club now boasting 22,000 members (and 30,000 more on the waitlist), he has built what I am convinced is the world’s most passionate bean community.
One of its most passionate members? My sister Kena, who now brings up beans in any conversation she can. She loves discussing them, preparing them, and, of course, savoring them. (Fortunately for me, she loves sharing them too.). But she doesn’t love just any beans. She’s always raving about her Rancho Gordo beans in particular. Some of her favorites are the Christmas Lima Beans, the Ceci Piccoli (Small Chickpea), and all types of black beans. My cooking skills are limited to breakfast items, so I save my appetite for the delights of her kitchen. The beans, which I’ve enjoyed on several occasions, are delicious.
“My sister is one of your superfans,” I tell Sando minutes into our chat.
“We use the term bean freak… but lovingly,” he tells me.
I’m giddy already. I can’t wait to tell Kena that I talked to the original bean freak himself.
It doesn’t take long before I start plotting a visit to Napa Valley in my head to visit the Rancho Gordo flagship store and even attend their bean party in Santa Ana — yes, that’s a thing.
But as with all On Fire subjects, I’m so interested in what it took to get there. Sando’s evolution from a self-described “D-list celebrity in the food world” to a pioneer of the bean revolution was anything but linear. Raised in San Francisco, he faced challenges with bullying and a deep-seated yearning for acceptance. “I always thought that as soon as I can grow up, I’m gonna be okay.”
Still, there was one clear bright spot during this time: food. Sando’s father used to go abalone diving; many of Sando’s fondest childhood memories are of backyard parties full grilled abalones, steaks, Caesar salad, and fresh sourdough bread, all set against the backdrop of West Coast jazz.
“The height of civility and fun to me is a dinner party,” he tells me. “I think I learned my love of entertaining and hosting from that era.”
Sando didn’t set out to have a career in food. After traveling the world for a few years, his first grown-up job out of college was at Esprit, a popular clothing company in San Francisco. He worked in customer service and sales. Then, after moving to Italy with the company, he had an epiphany: his heart wasn’t in fashion. He knew that he wanted to pursue a life that made him feel on fire — he just didn’t know what that meant yet.
While some always “knew,” many people I meet through On Fire tell me this same story. They realized their heart wasn’t in what they were doing. But they didn’t know what might do the trick. So, they just chose to not settle — to keep searching for something that would set them on fire — and, eventually, they did.
Over the rest of his 20s and 30s, Sando tried many things. He became a radio DJ in Milan, starting a show where he blended his love of 1950s jazz and making cocktails on air; he started a popular monthly zine called MisterLucky where he shared his favorite music and drinks; he even did music licensing for some big-name companies like Sutter Home Winery and Fila Clothing. Still, he never fully felt like he had found his ‘thing’ or reached a level of success he was happy with. When he hit 40 and hadn’t hit it big yet, he decided to give up.
“I turned 40 and thought I was a complete ‘F up,’” he says, acknowledging his many attempts at serial entrepreneurship that fell short of his dreams. “I thought, ‘You know what, this isn’t working.” He decided to do the only thing he could think of at the time: he started a garden. This is also part of the story of those who take time to find their passion. While a part of them chooses not to settle, creating space for something new to take its place, they finally find a passion when they relax and stop trying so hard.
In fact, it was when Sando had all but given up that everything started to come together.
“I just knew that if I had a garden, I would be okay somehow,” he says. He describes the experience of gardening felt like “helping God.” He started with tomatoes, but before long, started growing a purple and black striped bean known as Rio Zape. He couldn’t believe the taste.
“I remember thinking, well, it's sort of like a Pinto, but there's a little bit of coffee in there, and a little bit of chocolate,” he says. And the broth from the beans was like “free soup.”
That’s when a simple question hit him: Why do we know so much about obscure French wines — but so little about beans?
“It just seemed a little wrong to me,” he says. He started cooking the beans for his friends, who were impressed. But the real test came at a San Francisco farmers market. When his beans began to develop a cult following of hippies and local chefs, he knew he was onto something.
Even then, he knew it wasn’t just about the beans. The people visiting the market were calling it church — they were looking for more than just good food.
“You had a role beyond just selling beans,” he recalls. “You are selling them the experience of buying beans in the farmer's market from this guy who's freakishly in love with beans.”
When he first started in the farmers’ market, he had no vision of a bean empire yet — he just knew he loved the beans and sharing them with the world. But it didn’t take him long to realize there was more opportunity there. He started Rancho Gordo, selling direct to consumer from the start, and animated by far more than profit. Above all, he wanted to bring all the “bean freaks” together in one place.
But it was the Bean Club, which Sando started around 10 years ago, that really took things to the next level. He was sitting around with a few team members in his Napa Valley offices one day when they heard about a new wine club.
“I thought, who needs another stupid wine club?” he recalls, his eyes twinkling. “We should do a bean club.” A bean club, mimicking the standard quarterly shipments of wine clubs, seemed like a fun idea. It turned out to be more than that: from just 20 people, the club grew to 22,000 members. My sister is one of them — she marks the calendar for each quarterly shipment.
Looking back, Sando says if he could have given his younger self some advice, it would be to follow his passions — and to stop worrying about what others thought (this reminds me about my conversation with performance psychologist Michael Gervais about FOMO).
“If I had just focused on the things I was passionate about — food and music and traveling — I think I would have been a much more interesting person… and people would have thought better of me anyway,” he says. At least he can laugh about it — he chuckles knowingly.
His advice for anyone worried about finding their passion — or their path forward — whatever age they’re currently at?
“It’s sort of like you should have a really good script, memorize it, and then throw it out and see what happens,” he says. “I remember being in my 30s and thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is never going to work out.’ And I mean, half my problem was the anxiety of worrying about all this stuff. Because, you know, you’re probably going to land on your feet. So my advice would be to relax and enjoy yourself as much as you can.”
“And eat good food,” he adds.
Takeaways
Here is one big thing I learned this week about passion, one exercise you can do to stoke your own inner fire, and one aspect of Sando’s intense enthusiasm that rubbed off on me — and that I now want to learn more about, too!
One Lesson: Keep Experimenting – And Don’t Settle
It's a common misconception that we should discover our life's passion early and stick with it indefinitely. However, Sando's journey illustrates a more realistic and often more rewarding path: continual experimentation. From his early career in fashion to his unexpected foray into radio DJing, and finally, to revolutionizing the bean industry, Sando's diverse experiences underline the importance of staying open to new possibilities and refusing to settle until you find what truly makes you feel on fire.
Exercise: Engage in a Conscious Sampling Period
One of my favorite books, Range by David Epstein, discusses the importance of engaging in a variety of experiences to find where our true talents and interests lie. Sando's eclectic journey — from fashion to radio DJing, and ultimately to pioneering the production and sharing of heirloom beans — is a perfect illustration of the power of this sampling period.
Try it: Write down a list of five to ten activities or interests you’re curious about but haven’t explored deeply. Set small goals for each (for example, if you’re interested in gardening, your goal could be to plant a small herb garden). Assign a realistic timeframe to each interest, then reflect and reevaluate at the end of each period. Ask yourself: Are you interested enough to dive deeper?
One Curiosity: Cooking Beans!
In preparation for this interview, I ordered a few bags of beans so I could try and cook them for myself. Sando (and Kena) have assured me that despite my limited cooking skills, even I will be able to make some tasty beans. The box arrived yesterday and I can’t wait to give it my best shot.