Alice Waters
Alice Louise Waters (born April 28, 1944) is an American chef, restaurateur and author. In 1971, she opened Chez Panisse, a restaurant in Berkeley, California, famous for its role in creating the farm-to-table movement and for pioneering California cuisine.[2]
Alice Waters
April 28, 1944
Waters has authored the books Chez Panisse Cooking (with Paul Bertolli), The Art of Simple Food I and II, and 40 Years of Chez Panisse.[3] Her memoir, Coming to my Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook, was published in September 2017 and released in paperback in May 2018.[4]
Waters created the Chez Panisse Foundation in 1996 and the Edible Schoolyard program at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley.[5] She is a national public policy advocate for universal access to healthy, organic foods. Her influence in the fields of organic foods and nutrition inspired Michelle Obama's White House organic vegetable garden program.[6]
Background[edit]
Waters was born in Chatham Borough, New Jersey, on April 28, 1944, to Charles Allen Waters, a Rutgers University graduate who was a management consultant and Margaret Waters, a homemaker. Waters graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a degree in French cultural studies in 1967. While at Berkeley, she studied abroad in France, where she says she "lived at the bottom of a market street" and "took everything in by osmosis".[5]
She brought this style of food preparation back to Berkeley, where she opened her first Provence-style restaurant with a friend.[5] She claims that food is a way of life and not just something to eat.[7]
Political involvement[edit]
During her time at Berkeley, Waters became active in the Free Speech Movement, which was sweeping across the campus.[5][8]
Waters worked on the congressional campaign of Robert Scheer, an anti-Vietnam War politician. She often cooked for and entertained her fellow campaigners.[9]
Additional influences[edit]
Waters eventually returned to Europe, where she first trained at a Montessori school in London. Principles of the Montessori method, which emphasize practical and hands-on activities for children, are evident in Waters's idea of "edible education" and her Edible Schoolyard, which engages children in the preparation of fruits and vegetables that they tend to with the supervision of their teachers.[10][8]
After training in London, Waters next traveled to Turkey, which she credits with influencing her approach to hospitality and deepening her respect for local communities. In his book Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, Thomas McNamee recounts Waters's experience in Turkey, where a young Turkish boy shared tea and a small bit of cheese with Waters and her traveling companions, even though he had very little. This small act of kindness had an effect on Waters's approach to hospitality and generosity in her own restaurant.[11]
From Turkey, Waters then returned to France, where she embarked upon a year-long journey. Her travels solidified her love of all things food and French and inspired her to return to California and open Chez Panisse.[12]
Waters counts Elizabeth David, the English cookbook author and writer, as one of her influences. She also credits Richard Olney, an American authority on French food who spent much of his life living in France, with influencing her simple, rustic cuisine.[13]
Olney introduced Waters to Lucien and Lulu Peyraud, owners of the Domaine Tempier vineyard in Provence. Lulu Peyraud's vineyard cooking significantly influenced Waters's cooking and her menus at Chez Panisse. In her foreword to Olney's book, Lulu's Provençal Table, Waters wrote: "Lucien and Lulu's warmhearted enthusiasm for life, their love for the pleasures of the table, their deep connection to the beautiful earth of the South of France – these were things I had seen at the movies. But this was for real. I felt immediately as if I had come home to second family."[14]
In addition, Waters has said that she learned Chinese cooking from Cecilia Chiang, and the two became lifelong friends.[15] Waters has said that what Chiang did to popularize Chinese cuisine in America is what Julia Child did for French cuisine.[16][17]
Chez Panisse[edit]
Background[edit]
In 1971, Waters opened Chez Panisse, which she named for a favorite character in a trilogy of Marcel Pagnol films.[18] From the beginning, the restaurant was a collaborative effort. One notable collaboration was with Jeremiah Tower, who helped create some of the recipes that she later published under her name. Tower took the organic ingredients and melded them into a more refined menu. Chez Panisse was intended to serve primarily as a place where Waters could entertain her friends.[5] Realizing the difficulty in sourcing fresh, high-quality ingredients, Waters began building a network of local farmers, artisans, and producers, and continues to source the restaurant's ingredients through her local network.[19] Waters opened the upstairs Chez Panisse Café, a concept championed by Tower, in 1980. Café serves an a la carte menu for lunch and dinner. In 1984, Waters opened Café Fanny, named after her daughter, between the wine shop of Kermit Lynch and Acme Bread. Café Fanny, which served breakfast and lunch in a casual, European-café setting, closed in 2012.[20] Then Waters mainly focused on the importance of organic farmers. Through Chez Panisse foundation, the project called Edible Schoolyard was organized in order to make an environment for the students to learn how to grow their own food and prepare it.[21]
Dedication to organic food[edit]
Central to the operations and philosophy of Chez Panisse is Waters's and the restaurant's dedication to using organic ingredients. Waters has become a crusader for organic foods, believing that they are both better for the environment and for people's health in addition to tasting superior to commercially grown, non-organic foods.
Waters became an organic devotee almost by accident, claiming that what she was originally after was taste. She says: "When I opened up Chez Panisse, I was only thinking about taste. And in doing that, I ended up at the doorstep of [organic farmers]."[22]
Waters's current organic food agenda includes reforming the USDA school lunch program to include organic, local fruits and vegetables and changing the way America eats, but her passion for organics started at her restaurant, where she discovered that organic ingredients were the essential element necessary to create delicious food.
Activism and public policy influence[edit]
Waters's effort to promote fresh, sustainable food grown by local farms has extended into her work as a food activist and humanitarian. Waters has always been an outspoken supporter of the restaurant's approach to food, cooking, and supporting the local community, but has more recently formalized her efforts through the Chez Panisse Foundation.[5]
In celebration of the restaurant's 25th anniversary in 1996, Waters founded the Chez Panisse Foundation, whose mission is to transform public education by using food to teach, nurture, and empower young people.[23] In particular, the foundation has worked with the Berkeley Unified School District to develop a public school curriculum that is integrated with the school dining services and incorporates growing, cooking, and sharing food at the table into the school day in order to build a humane and sustainable future for the school's students.[23]
The Chez Panisse Foundation is a publicly supported 501(c)(3) organization.
Slow Food[edit]
Since 2002, Waters has served as a vice president of Slow Food International, an organization dedicated to preserving local food traditions, protecting biodiversity, promoting small-scale quality products around the world.[34] She was drawn to the Slow Food movement because of its work in passing food knowledge and traditions to future generations.[35]
Waters has received numerous awards for her cooking, environmental advocacy, and other achievements.[36]
Chef and restaurant awards:
Advocacy awards:
Other honors and achievements: