Cheryl Simons of Cafe Kuumbwa.

Soft and sultry, sharp and improvisational, big and bold. Jazz flows through the kitchen at Cafe Kuumbwa, where Chef Cheryl Simon can be seen cooking on Mondays and many Thursdays. The cafe, the kitchen inside the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, serves an entree dinner before Kuumbwa-produced shows twice a week. Two types of chili, salads and dessert are also on the menu.

Simon has fans among the artists who visit this well-respected venue. Singer and pianist Diane Schuur was apparently so impressed with the food, she made up a song about it on the spot. Dave Brubeck has called Simon’s food “the best dinner on the entire tour.”

The Santa Cruz native, who cites San Francisco chef Joyce Goldstein and the legendary Jacques Pepin as her influences, agreed to let Weekend Santa Cruz get to know her a little better.

How many years have you been at Kuumbwa Jazz Center? A ridiculous amount, 29 years — 14 as chef. The other 15 I was a volunteer and occasionally filled in for the cafe manager. I worked my way into this.

Where did you learn to cook? I’m self taught. Cooking has always come fairly easy. There’s nothing out there that I don’t think I can do. It’s about confidence, but I also have fear. That’s helpful because I cook like my life depends on it. When I cook for Kuumbwa, I take a lot of pride in what I do. ….I learned from the great chefs. I read cookbooks. I read recipes. I know a good recipe when I see it.

What was the first recipe you mastered? I was 16, a know-it-all, and I was a vegetarian. I didn’t even know what tofu was at that point — well, I probably did. My grandmother took me to a wedding in Denver, and I thought “I’m not going to go to Colorado and not go to the mountains.” I told her I was going to take a backpack and see the mountains, see Boulder. My cousin, who was getting married, had artist friends in Nederland. They let me stay with them and I decided to impress them with my best casserole. It was a casserole of white rice, broccoli, Cheez Whiz and some other things , maybe evaporated milk. I cooked a lot as a kid…. I thought it was really, really good. A 16-year-old making a casserole to impress the artists she was staying with.

How would you describe your cuisine? Herb and spice-driven whole food. Simple, fresh and healthy.

Favorite unusual flavor combination? One of my favorite sauces is Moroccan. I don’t find it unusual, but it’s like a Moroccan pesto: chermoula. It is cilantro, parsley, equal parts lemon juice and olive oil, and spices like turmeric, cumin, garlic, cayenne, paprika, salt and pepper.

Where do you find your ingredients? We have great grocery stores: Staff of Life, Shoppers Corner, the farmers market and New Leaf. Staff of Life makes organic food very affordable, accessible. I love the farmers market, but it’s not every day and I shop the day of. I even decide the day of, 90 percent of the time. One of the joys of my cooking is that I get inspired by certain ingredients that come out because of the season.

Is there a recipe you haven’t quite mastered yet? Oh yeah. I find a lot of things challenging. What I like to do is to really master something, like pasta making or gnocchi. It was only through the fear of making crappy, gooey gnocchi that I got really good at it. I made different kinds — beet, butternut squash — over and over. I know something I haven’t done: aspic, which you slice. That’s something I’m going to work on. Another is sausage making. I don’t feel intimidated. I want to teach myself. There’s nothing that I feel that I can’t do.

If you could go on a food vacation to taste regional cuisine, where would you go? I would go to Spain, all over the Mediterranean and North Africa, and Italy, France. I just love North African cuisine. The flat breads and the spices and the lemon and the olive oil.

What chef would you challenge in Iron Chef America? I would challenge none. All the Iron Chefs, they are fearless and that’s not my thing. I shudder to be on camera doing what they do. I’d rather make dinner for 200 people by myself.

If given an apple, I would make…Chutney right now because apples are not in season. I do like apple tarts and pies and crisps. I might make an apple crisp.

The key to my cooking is…Fresh ingredients. It’s also that I’m inspired by what I learned from Joyce Goldstein, whom I’ve never met personally: the unusual combination. I would never put something together for the novelty of it… I really want to find things that work together and complement each other. I’m always looking for interesting combinations and I get that through my study of different ethnic foods. It’s a great way to learn about other cultures too.

Cafe Kuumbwa, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar Street, Santa Cruz. Dinners are served one-hour before Kuumbwa-produced shows and consist of an entree. Vegetarian options are available, as are meat and vegetarian chili, salad, cornbread, and a variety of desserts. (831) 427-2227.