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Alice Waters
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Alice Waters is one of the most influential American chefs since the 1970s. She is the founder of Chez Panisse, the original "California Cuisine" restaurant in Berkeley, California and is the author of 8 books that promote the importance of wholesale nutrition. Alice Waters has been a leading advocate of natural and organic foods, championing the importance of locally grown and fresh ingredients. Her Edible Schoolyard program has been integrated into the entire Berkeley school system and has attracted mainstream attention across the nation because of the crisis of childhood obesity. She has helped to reshape the conversation in America from corporate-controlled fast-foods back to the importance of wholesome foods as an important ingredient in creating a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.
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At a public exchange between food journalist Michael Pollan and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey earlier this month, Alice Waters was a tiny, quiet figure whose presence roared. Flanked by companions who insulated her like bodyguards, standing in front of her seat in the VIP section at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall before the event began, Waters looked silvery and elegant. The 62-year-old was sheathed in a linen duster the color of black truffles. An oatmeal-colored cashmere scarf framed her dark eyes and delicately attenuated cheekbones, a startlingly familiar face. She greeted people she knew with Parisian air kisses and a poise that suggested an acute awareness of the eyes pressing in on her.
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Alice Waters has changed American cooking by returning the farmer to the culinary food chain. She insists on locally grown, seasonal ingredients and preaches sustainable agriculture. She celebrates the experience of discovering a new tomato, a tiny eggplant, at the farmers market.
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Alice Waters, creator and proprietor of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., has revolutionized the way Americans think about food. In an attempt to recreate the memorable dining experiences she had as a college student in France, the New Jersey-born Waters hit upon a simple formula: eat organically grown produce that's in season, and meats and fish that haven't been shot full of hormones and preservatives. Her message turned out to be the chef's equivalent of architect Mies van der Rohe's "less is more." Indeed, Waters, 57, is credited with bringing to the culinary mainstream her reverence for fresh, local ingredients in dishes with a Mediterranean sensibility. Many of the country's best chefs have trained in her kitchen, and a number of them will be among the 600 lining long outdoor tables at the University of California, Berkeley, next Sunday for a 30th-birthday bash. Proceeds from the $500-a-plate lunch will go to Waters's five-year-old Chez Panisse Foundation, which funds school and community farming projects.
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[S]o in August 1971 Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse, taking its name from a character in one of Marcel Pagnol's films. It was not an entirely auspicious beginning, since no one involved had any restaurant experience. Staff members were graduate students, artists, poets, and musicians. Yet the anticipation was great, since Ms. Waters had already established a reputation as a cook. Although the first night was nearly disastrous, Chez Panisse soon became the place to eat in Berkeley.
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Alice Waters was born on April 28, 1944, in Chatham, New Jersey. She graduatedfrom the University of California at Berkeley in 1967 with a degree in French Cultural Studies. She then trained at the Montessori School in London,followed by a year traveling in France. She has a daughter, Fanny, who was born in 1983.
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Alice Waters