Alice Waters And Chez Panisse

Mar 09, 2009

Molly rated it

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Shelves: food, memoir-and-biography

I'm not a big biography reader. Not yet, anyway. But every once in awhile, I come across a biography that examines its subject with such intelligence and style that I emerge from that book profoundly satisfied. Add this bio to that list. I started it not even a week ago and looked forward to every return. I'm done now, and I'm bummed. Appropriately, it was delicious -- at times critical, at times glowing, and always well written -- an account of the life and times of a woman and her restaurant. ...more

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Jan 29, 2012

Megan rated it

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Shelves: borrowed-library

I'm a cook. And, considering where I work, and the fact that I haven't been to culinary school, I'm definitely just a cook, and not a chef. But, despite all of that, I am very much inspired by Alice Waters and the chefs of Chez Panisse. I'd be an idiot if I wasn't, right? Her cookbooks and recipes are beautiful, just beautiful. I own one of her cookbooks, and frequently salivate over the others at the library. Who wouldn't want to eat at Chez Panisse, surrounded by progressive, tasteful, an...moreI'm a cook. And, considering where I work, and the fact that I haven't been to culinary school, I'm definitely just a cook, and not a chef. But, despite all of that, I am very much inspired by Alice Waters and the chefs of Chez Panisse. I'd be an idiot if I wasn't, right? Her cookbooks and recipes are beautiful, just beautiful. I own one of her cookbooks, and frequently salivate over the others at the library. Who wouldn't want to eat at Chez Panisse, surrounded by progressive, tasteful, and artistic Berkeleyites? It would be a foodie's dream come true. McNamee's pages-long descriptions of Chez Panisse's various offerings over the years literally made my mouth water. His book was certainly a sensual treat, at its best. As a locavore, an organic gardener, and an environmentalist, I'm also grateful for the attention Alice Waters has brought to localism, organics, and the place of both in the environmental movement.

Still, Alice and her staff at Chez Panisse are gourmands, and when it comes to clean, environmentally-friendly, tasty food that you can cook and eat every day, I think Deborah Madison does it better. I love Alice Waters' cookbooks as reading material, but I rarely cook from them. The ingredients are expensive and hard to find. On the other hand, Madison's seasonal recipes are more affordable and accessible to the average cook and gardener. Madison also understands that not every cook in the U.S. can shop at the Berkeley farmers' market, where anything and everything seems to be available year-round. In my humble opinion, there's also a whole host of other new chefs, such as Bryant Terry and Louisa Shafia, who have also surpassed the Chez Panisse crowd on the sustainability factor, taking their cues from Deborah Madison, not Alice Waters. But McNamee suggests Alice Waters paved the way for Madison, Terry, Shafia and their like, so I take my hat off to Alice for that. He suggests, were it not for Alice Waters, no one would be interested in local, organic food. Well... I don't know if I'm buying that, but I'm sure she deserves some of the credit.

Otherwise, sadly, much of this book is a repetitive bore. It's 351 pages, whereas 200 would have sufficed. I'm glad Alice and the staff have cleaned up their act, healthwise, but really, the book was at its most entertaining when detailing the early, steamy, bohemian days of the restaurant and Alice's career. The book takes on a somewhat titillating tone when describing the 1970s kitchen staff, who were coked to the max during the dinner rush, polishing off the wine cellar during clean-up, and then heading home together after hours, since many of the staff were involved in on-and-off-again affairs with each other. Once the 1990s roll around, and the staff have gotten married, settled down, had children, taken up yoga, and whatever, the story really slows down, almost to a crawl. Alice becomes involved with Carlo Petrini and the Slow Food Movement, which could have been a more interesting story were it not so... slow. Too little interesting detail is provided, while too many stories of Alice's harried schedule are included, instead. And then, there were more descriptions of menus and food preparation, but after ten chapters of that, I was bored of one more description of braising this, or grilling that. I kept reading, though, hoping that something more exciting would happen after the lamb was grilled and the vegetables were roasted and the customers were served. It didn't.

In the end, it's helped me to be happier about my own job. The stress in a natural foods deli seems like nothing compared to the stress in a 5-star restaurant. I'd love to eat at Chez Panisse, but I'd never want to work there. It seems that to work there is to live there, and I enjoy having a life outside of my job. So, if anything, I have McNamee to thank for a renewed (probably temporary) sense of job satisfaction. Otherwise, I would only recommend this book to die-hard foodies and masochistic gourmands, because it really does become a torturous read after you've completed about two-thirds of the book. I suggest you read it with an open bottle of wine at your side to get you through the boring parts, because once Alice stops sleeping with the restaurant staff, it pretty much goes downhill.

That said, Thomas McNamee's not a bad writer. He has a beautiful way with words. He just needs a better subject than a restaurant if he's going to write such a long book.
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Apr 28, 2008

N. rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This feels like a commissioned piece of art, especially because the author, as he makes clear in his introduction, was first approached by Alice Waters' publicist to write this book..

There are some snarky comments in the book, like how someone coined the nickname "Cheese Penis" for the restaurant.

And some interesting pieces of gossip. I was disappointed to find that Julia Child told Alice Waters in a panel discussion:

"There is not as much of a ...moreThis feels like a commissioned piece of art, especially because the author, as he makes clear in his introduction, was first approached by Alice Waters' publicist to write this book..

There are some snarky comments in the book, like how someone coined the nickname "Cheese Penis" for the restaurant.

And some interesting pieces of gossip. I was disappointed to find that Julia Child told Alice Waters in a panel discussion:

"There is not as much of a California cuisine as you chauvinists would have us believe. It is actually such a mixture that definitions cannot be made. Although you mention simplicity, I think menus can be made so simple that they become dull. Sometimes I'm glad when I can go back to France, where they really do things with food.

You have an unduly doleful point of view about the way that most people shop for food. Visit any supermarket and you'll see plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. And if you don't like the looks of what you see displayed at the market, complain to the produce manager. That's what I do, and it always gets results" (p162).

Alice Waters later said to that, "We remained friends in spite of that. I always had a little back and forth with her. She was the most influential culinary leader in America, and I think the whole organic movement could have moved along a lot more quickly if she had taken it up. But I utterly appreciated what she did do. She expressed the joy of cooking. No one else has been able to do that in the way that she did it. Who cares if she was a good cook or not? She had fun, and she shared it with everybody around her table. She brought people to her table. I always liked that part on her TV show when she sat down and ate."

In all I don't think I got a very good impression of Alice Waters, and I think this is because the author didn't seem to really like her very much. There's the part of how she left Berkeley in the tumultous 60s to study abroad in France to indulge in food and boys. How she and her much younger husband divorced when he ripped his face off in a biking accident. How she manages to avoid seeming like she made the big, bad decisions at the restaurant by hiding behind someone who will take the blame. How her father managed and ran the business side of the restaurant for her as she lavishly spent on wine and food and travel. It's all mentioned but kind of glossed over, like, "Well, but it wasn't a big deal" when her spoiled girl ways seem like a big deal.

There's just something about this book that didn't sit right with me. I don't know if it's because I didn't like Alice Waters as a character the author chose to depict or as a real-life person, or if because his writing was small when it should've been big. Less self-conscious, more revealing of her. To inbetween, too nothing, nothing spectacular, nothing brave, nothing great. Just kind of boring. If only he'd dared to be a little more critical, instead of throwing it out and letting it flop around a bit and then die out on its own. Someone like Bill Buford would have no problems laying it down like it is. Neither would Blake Morrison. The more Brit style of honesty.

But I did like hearing about the history of the restaurant and about the California food movement in general. (less)

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Dec 31, 2007

Mark Poons rated it

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This book was a major let down. A book about the "most important restaurant in America" should have been much better. The material was clearly available; the author just did a terrible job with it. He explains very little about the business side of chez Panisse, it is always loosing money but the author never explains how it stays afloat financially. Alice is always on the brink of a breakdown at the end of several chapters. Then turn the page and she is motivated again? What changed? ...more

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Sep 07, 2008

Naida rated it

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Recommends it for: Foodies and other people looking to learn more about the slow food movement

A great book about one of the most influential women and restaurants in American cooking.
Alice Waters and the rest of the employees, chefs and the farmers that supply Chez Panisse were part of a revolutionary movement in American food. Local, organic and simple these were their beliefs and this is how they cook.

This book does a great job of outlining Alice's life and the development of Chez Panisse. If you're looking for recipes, this is not the book for you, but if you want ...more

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Oct 30, 2007

Alison rated it

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Recommends it for: people who watch too much food network; East Bay residents

Very lighthearted yet extensive look into Alice Waters, Chez Panisse and the birth of "California cuisine." It's remarkable how much of what started there now informs so much of American dining. However, the book relies slightly too much to the "Alice did everything first, no one had ever thought of stuff like this before" trope. Not to take any credit from her, but it seems unlikely that NO ONE NO WHERE EVER thought of using lots of local products and fresh produce and se...more

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Aug 16, 2011

Sarah rated it

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I am grateful to Anthony Bourdain for summing it up so neatly when he described Alice Waters as "Pol Pot in a muu muu." Despite its effusive title and starstruck gushing at the outset, this book quickly revealed to me that while I am very glad to have dined at Chez Panisse, I am gladder still that I didn't run into Alice Waters while there. The book is readable and gossipy but paints a very unflattering portrait of Waters -- her imperiousness, privilege, and naive assumptions that ev...more

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Oct 28, 2010

Judy rated it

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Recommends it for: foodies, women and dreamers

Shelves: biography

Chez Panisse is the famous restaurant in Berkeley, CA, which opened on August 28, 1971, with the credo, "fresh, local, seasonal and where possible organic ingredients," and is still going strong. I know that for a fact because my husband and I had dinner there on September 22, 2010 in celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary.

I have been intending to read McNamee's biography of Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse, ever since the night about three years ago when I cook...moreChez Panisse is the famous restaurant in Berkeley, CA, which opened on August 28, 1971, with the credo, "fresh, local, seasonal and where possible organic ingredients," and is still going strong. I know that for a fact because my husband and I had dinner there on September 22, 2010 in celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary.

I have been intending to read McNamee's biography of Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse, ever since the night about three years ago when I cooked a meal with local, seasonal and where possible organic ingredients for my brother-in-law, a preeminent natural foods guy. He had been under the weather that day and almost did not appear for this gathering at my mom's house in Michigan. When he finished eating, his color improved from pale to glowing, his spirits revived, he told me it was a meal worthy of being served at Chez Panisse. It was a high point in my cooking life.

So when husband and I set off for our roadtrip to the Redwoods and the Bay Area, I brought the book along. Roadtrips are not conducive to reading for me. After driving, sightseeing, hiking and all, I can read about ten pages before falling into delicious sleep. By the time we returned home, I was only about 35 pages in. But I read the rest over the next two days, which was perfect because I had been there, I had visited the kitchen (as all guests are invited to do) and I had experienced one of the best meals of my life.

Like most successful undertakings, Chez Panisse began as an impractical dream, under financed and built with love and enthusiasm by a group of dedicated people. The book captures those beginnings in all their crazy glory. In fact, the restaurant never showed a profit for almost ten years, but it also stayed in the same location and never closed.

The most entertaining aspect was the wealth of stories about Alice Waters, the chefs, the staff and the incredible adventures they had. The most enlightening was my realization that before Michael Pollan and his Omnivore's Dilemma, before Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, before the whole entire movement towards responsible farming and eating habits, came Alice Waters.

Having been intimately involved with the beginnings of the organic food movement in Ann Arbor in 1970, I felt completed when I had finished Alice Waters' story and learned what it was like to live through those days in Berkeley while I lived through them in Ann Arbor.

Finally but not least at all, there is Alice herself. In a tiny body, barely over five feet tall, with a huge heart and mercurial temperament, she has bravely, rashly, incorrigibly followed every dream she ever had. She has created a huge impact in the world with her slow food movement (as opposed to fast food). She has scores of admirers and enemies and is the embodiment of one of my favorite realities: well-behaved women seldom make history.

If you believe in the power of food, dreams and/or women, you will love this book.(less)

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Mar 30, 2010

Tryn rated it

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Shelves: food, biography

Okay, I did not read this biography beginning to end. I browsed, and read big chunks of it. But I got enough from the content to know that Alice Waters is incredibly cool.

Even if you never pick up this book, you need to know a little about Alice. In 1971, when she was just 27, she opened a restaurant in Berkely, California, because she wanted to create a place where food would be prepared with attention to every detail, from the freshest, seasonal, local, usually organic ingredi...moreOkay, I did not read this biography beginning to end. I browsed, and read big chunks of it. But I got enough from the content to know that Alice Waters is incredibly cool.

Even if you never pick up this book, you need to know a little about Alice. In 1971, when she was just 27, she opened a restaurant in Berkely, California, because she wanted to create a place where food would be prepared with attention to every detail, from the freshest, seasonal, local, usually organic ingredients. At the time even the best restaurants in the U.S. used prepared, canned, or frozen foods. She wanted a place where friends could gather, talk, laugh, and eat simple, delicious, fresh food. Even though Alice did not go to cooking school or receive any formal training other than one summer making crab salad sandwiches in a department store café, and even though she claims to have little business sense and often operated her restaurant in the red during the first years of its existence, now 40 years after her restaurant opened, Alice Waters is one of the most admired and successful figures among foodies.

Alice fell in love with all things French when she studied abroad in college. She came home wanting to wear French clothes and eat French food. She wanted to live the kind of life where all the details matter and are well thought-out. Her restaurant dinning room has eclectic chairs from estate sales, mix-matched but beautiful china and flatware, and large flower arrangements full of whatever is happening in nature at the time, even apple tree boughs with the apples still on them.

Her gifts are her acute senses, her impeccable taste memory, her attention to detail, her welcoming spirit, her soulful connection to nature, and her intense sociability. Alice has a strong sense of purpose and mission, but also amazing flexibility. And so in starting a restaurant, this woman somehow started a food revolution. Her restaurant has repeatedly been named the best in the United Stakes. She is sought after as a speaker. She is held up as an icon for food lovers and gourmets. She is the hero of organic farmers and farmer’s market purveyors and food journalists. Her crusade is to change school lunch programs to include more fresh, natural, seasonal ingredients. She wants children to learn to grow and prepare their own food and feel connected to the earth, to recognize a stewardship over it. Her audacious motto is “How we eat can change the world.” Alice Waters is an idealist and I adore idealists.
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Jun 18, 2009

Babs rated it

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I am about the furthest thing from a "foodie" that there can be and I knew almost nothing about Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, but I really, really enjoyed this book! I went to Chez Panisse once (must have been the Cafe because it was upstairs and it was lunch), but I was definitely uninformed at the time.

McNamee gathered excellent research and wove the story together wonderfully, from the fateful study abroad trip to Paris of a young, college-aged woman through the 30-ye...more

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Mar 28, 2009

Schmacko rated it

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There is a moment late in the book Alice Waters and Chez Panisse where author Thomas McNamee describes a dining experience with such detailed romance, it ends up being a little hard to believe. Still, I wanted so desperately to believe it: the purple poetry, the food and the place McNamee paints for us. I wanted to be there, eating and enjoying in that restaurant that was born of hippie haphazard in the early 1970 – the place that now is one of the most famous restaurants in the world:

...moreThere is a moment late in the book Alice Waters and Chez Panisse where author Thomas McNamee describes a dining experience with such detailed romance, it ends up being a little hard to believe. Still, I wanted so desperately to believe it: the purple poetry, the food and the place McNamee paints for us. I wanted to be there, eating and enjoying in that restaurant that was born of hippie haphazard in the early 1970 – the place that now is one of the most famous restaurants in the world:

As the food and the wine and the flowers and the staff did their work, there was more laughter, more talk.  Strangers began chatting with one another.  Old friends were changing seats.  The newcomers, encouraged by the old-timers they had seen doing it, went in for a look at the kitchen and were welcomed.



As the meal wound down, so did the cooks and the waiters.  Everybody was loosing up.  The barriers of custom that separated stranger from stranger, server from served, frequently soften at this point in the evening at Chez Panisse, and sometimes they even seem to disappear.

Given the ambling, accidental history of Chez Panisse, it seems a miracle that it’s still around today. Alice Waters was not a professional chef; she was a Francophile American who dreamt up the whole scheme. She picked a house in Berkley, California, and she and her bohemian friends at first tried their hand at turning out French Provençal cuisine. At different times in this biography, Waters seems shy and thoughtful, sly and manipulative, perspicacious and exacting. And yet Chez Panisse was not profitable at all for its first decade, sex and drugs were quietly accepted as part of the scene, and staff would genially pilfer food and wine without a second thought or, many times, even a reprimand.

Yet, Alice Waters and her restaurant were at the forefront of thoughts that today seem pervasive. Seemingly by accident, Waters and the several chefs she had working with her actually invented California Cuisine – light, healthy and simple foods that are marked by their seasonality and freshness (in mass-market terms, Seasons 52 adopts this same thought. Also an excellent Orlando version – and my favorite local restaurant - is the California atop Disney’s Contemporary hotel.) In California style, elaborate French preparation takes a backseat to keeping the food as simple and flavorful as possible. No longer are plates the product of days of overwrought preparation; they are the culmination of study, application and experimentation in minimal but artful arrangement of flavor and skill.

There were other seminal ideas. Waters and her collaborators also adopted the idea of fostering local growers and suppliers instead of the ecologically damaging and flavor-robbing process of shipping food by truck across the nation. Also, the Slow Foods movement found one of its greatest allies in Waters. Finally, in the last decade, Waters helped start food programs at public schools and colleges across the nation and into Europe.

That’s not to say McNamee’s book answers all the questions. Why and how Waters became so obsessed with food still seems a mystery at the end of the book – it’s a question that’s better to ponder, so McNamee smartly doesn’t provide an answer. Also, there are many stories in the book of human romances – most of them fiery and short-lived next to the legacy of Chez Panisse – and maybe that’s the way it should be for a place that has been so influential in changing the American culinary landscape.

Finally, Waters seems to get a lot of credit next to the people who immeasurably helped her – people who Fate seemed to always provide to Waters at the exact time. Sometimes, it’s perfectly fine that Waters gets every bit of the credit – like when it comes to the pompous and fussy Jeremiah Towers who loves to proclaim himself the God of All Food, we root for Waters. However, the restaurant also had many amazing people involved, like the brilliant artist and writer Patricia Curtan. And the restaurant was also fostered by..oh maybe you’ve heard of them if you’re fixated on these things like I am…Jean-Pierre Moullé (who is still head chef today) and Paul Bertolli (now of frozen pasta fame).

I admit I love books like this. I am a bit of an amateur foodie, true. But I also love books about how genius is developed or accidentally stumbled upon, especially when it’s this messy and wondrous. I alos love the simple black-and-white photos throughout the book. I love the Chez Panisse menus provided for special days – like anniversaries and their annual garlic festival. I love the conversational little recipes Alice Waters narrates; they’re peppered here and there – recipes that define the California style and give a warm, personal voice to Waters.

Mostly, I love the idea of this place, an idea that McNamee sears into my imagination. Someday I hope to sit there, eat and enjoy this foodie utopia that McNamee describes.
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Jun 19, 2011

jennifer rated it

A bio of both the famous restaurant in Berkeley and it's founder, sometime chef and public face of Waters.

It begins with Waters' childhood and I really thought that there was no need to go back quite that far, but as you go through her college years and the beginnings of her interest in food, and the fact that her father figures into the later success of the restaurant, it makes sense to have the background.

Chez Panisse has repeatedly been voted the best restaurant in Ame...more

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Jan 04, 2009

Cece rated it

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Recommends it for: foodies

Shelves: locavore

This book traced the history of Chez Panisse (and Alice Waters) from its founding to the present. In doing so, the author also traces the founding of the local food movement, California Cuisine, and the slow food movement in the US.

I really enjoyed learning about the creative process, people, and philosophy behind the restaurant and Alive Waters' work. It is easy to assume that the local food movement/philosophy was born as it currently exists. The book shows all of the influences an...more

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Oct 06, 2011

Happyreader rated it

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Shelves: bio-and-memoir, food-and-drink, women-of-interest

Essentially a memoir, a la My Life in France, where another California girl goes to France, eats the food, and is transformed. In this version of the tale, the girl decides to start a restaurant, hire lots of inexperienced Berkeley intellectuals to run the joint while they drink the wine cellar and smoke and snort whatever’s available. Somehow, despite gross mismanagement, staff conflict, and culinary mishaps, the restaurant survives, thrives, and the girl is transformed into a woman who sees ...more

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Jul 27, 2010

Paula Warnken rated it

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This biography tells the story of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse. There's a lot of good social/culinary history beginning the the 1960's when Alice was a student at UC Berkeley, through the 1970's and beyond. Chez Panisse was started in 1971 and there are stories aplenty about Alice, her friends, and the many people and places who influenced the development of this culinary icon. For those who consider "locavore" to be a contemporary trend, you'll learn how Alice and her associates fora...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Bonnie rated it

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Recommends it for: Stacy Stosich

Recommended to Bonnie by: Marg Rechif

Shelves: 2011, book-club, california, drugs, europe, france, italy, lover-of-foods, non-fiction, paris, politics, strong-women, thought-provoking, biography

Those who claim an affinity for fresh local food has to be familiar with the pioneer of fresh, Alice Waters. And you cannot have heard of Alice without having heard of her restaurant, Chez Panisse, and vice versa; one cannot separate them. She is who she is because of her resturant, and the restaurant could not have survived decades without her to become the world renowned restaurant and what it is today, without her. In fact, even Alice, had more than once thought to close it down, after its 10...more

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Jul 09, 2008

Sarah Arlen rated it

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Recommends it for: everyone, especially foodies

Shelves: favorites, re-read, reference, cooking-cuisine

What a gorgeous, mouthwatering book! I love cooking and I am a huge adherent of the organic/sustainable Slow Food Movement, so I am already the converted, but this book also explores the delicious pleasures of every turn in a great food leader's history. Hurray. I went right out and cooked a tasty meal afterwards.

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Aug 12, 2011

Stacy rated it

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Reading about Alice's finely tuned senses is what made this book interesting to me. To her every meal was a work of art requiring the finest and purest ingredients, and her approach to atmosphere was no different. It was also interesting to learn of her expanding notions of food politics. I did skim parts of the book--the narrative recipes and a few overly descriptive parts, but I enjoyed some of the crazy words the author used like panache, sublimates,dragooning and so forth.

Howeve...more

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Sep 06, 2009

Wendy rated it

Shelves: foodies, biography

Food makes up most of the supporting cast in McNamee's biography of Alica Waters and Chez Panisse, and he writes about each mesculin leaf with sumptuous detail. You just can't wait to get your hands on some fresh fruit and whip up a galette or tart. Unfortunately the main character, Alice Waters, quickly goes stale as the book's menu of Chez Panisse tales are served. It took only a few chapters for me to grow tired of her baby boomer antics, and the author seems slightly uncomfortable with ke...more

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Jul 03, 2011

Julie rated it

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Much like many biographies, the early years of the subject are the most interesting. Often I find that once the author has brought us up to speed with the subject the narration starts to lag. This is, unfortunatley, the case with this book as well. I don't tknow why but I left the book with a distinct dislike for Alice Waters. Not sure, since I was new to her sacntiminious sppeches about food consumption, that I found myself rolling my eyes each time I read a statement she had made. But I suppos...more

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Feb 09, 2009

Lisa rated it

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I've only given this 3- stars as the genre of biographies really don't hold my interest--they are too often dotted with more than enough information about a person's shortcomings. This one is no exception. However, Waters is truly a revolutionary who didn't intend to turn the food world or our relationship to food bottom-up but somehow ended up doing just that. Her influence is strong and noteworthy especially in the bay area from chefs who have worked with her to the Berkeley Unified School Dis...more

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Jan 27, 2009

Allison rated it

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Recommends it for: foodies, fans of Alice Waters

Shelves: books-read-in-2009

I'm not sure if I expected more from this book in general or that what I learned about the personality and characteristics of Alice Water's was a let down for me. I have long admired her, the restaurant, and her work with Slow Food International but this book left me feeling less appreciative, as though her vision is somehow warped and a little bit based in fantasy. That said, I liked how Thomas gave specific background and history pertaining to the evolution of the restaurant. When I turned the...more

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Apr 13, 2009

Abby rated it

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When we were in San Francisco last summer, we we were lucky enough to sneak (and I mean sneak as in no reservation and casual clothes) into the Cafe at Chez Panisse for dinner. It was a glorious experience--and it changed the whole way I have thought about zucchini since! I had seen part of a PBS program on Alice Waters, so when I found this book used for a song, I snatched it up. It was engrossing and inspiring to read about the early (very bohemian) days (and nights) of the restaurant that ...more

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Jan 08, 2011

Patrice Sartor rated it

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Shelves: food, non-fiction

I like Berkeley and its restaurants, and have long been intrigued by Chez Panisse, though I've never been. This book offers deep insight into the restaurant, starting from even before opening day. More importantly, the book centers on Alice, and the reader gets to know her very well. She is quite a character, a force to reckon with and learn from, and I did enjoy that, for the most part. Yet about 2/3 of the way through, it felt like the same old story, being retold under a different year of the...more

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Mar 20, 2008

Carla Jean rated it

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Recommends it for: foodies

Recommended to Carla Jean by: Elisa Munoz

Shelves: readin2008, booksiown

It only took 100 pages to convince me that I have GOT to make a pilgrimage to Chez Panisse. Plans are already in the works...

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Jun 21, 2011

Amy rated it

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I enjoyed the aspects of Alice Waters's cooking and restaurant that emphasized the movement towards using fresh, local, organic produce, sustainable meat and seafood, and the Edible Schoolyard and Yale Sustainable Food projects. Otherwise, I thought the author repeated a couple things one-too-many times: "it seemed like people came into Alice's life just at the opportune moment...", "Alice received credit when it should have been others...", it just got redundant and annoyin...moreI enjoyed the aspects of Alice Waters's cooking and restaurant that emphasized the movement towards using fresh, local, organic produce, sustainable meat and seafood, and the Edible Schoolyard and Yale Sustainable Food projects. Otherwise, I thought the author repeated a couple things one-too-many times: "it seemed like people came into Alice's life just at the opportune moment...", "Alice received credit when it should have been others...", it just got redundant and annoying. Overall, living in the Bay Area, having been to the Chez Panisse Cafe with my parents, student teaching and getting to be with students in the Edible Schoolyard at MLK, Jr. middle school, and now teaching and living about the environment made this an enjoyable read.

Use for teaching:
page 228
Chez Panisse and its extended family and like-minded people elsewhere were a very small force to stand up against the juggernaut of industrial agriculture. The situation was bad when Chez Panisse opened, in 1971, but it was radically worse fifteen years later.

Genetically modified corn had made possible the production of high fructose corn syrup at vastly lower cost than any other sugar, and that corn syrup was now appearing not only in desserts but in an astonishing range of food products. Consumers often didn't perceive the added sugar, but they came to prefer the products that contained it. It was , in effect, addictive. And it drove people still further away from the somewhat bitter-tasting foods-broccoli, Brussels sprouts, leafy greens-that were the most nutritious. Fast-food companies, and soon other restaurants, discovered that portion sizes could be increased at low cost, and that larger portions were preferred by many consumers. The corporations were offering to school districts special deals that would reduce their food costs substantially; cafeterias that actually cooked and served real food, therefore, were being replaced by vending machines and microwaved, portion-controlled meals-ready-to-eat. High schools rarely required their students to stay on campus at lunchtime anymore, so it hardly mattered if they served nutritious food, because McDonald's and its kind were very often conveniently situated nearby. "These guys find where the exits are on the freeways before they've been built," says Alice, "and they buy the land next to the school."

"High-fructose corn syrup," wrote the New York Times, "can hinder the body's ability to process sugar, and can promote faster fat growth than sweeteners derived from cane sugar....Since the advent of the syrup, consumption of all sweeteners has soared; the average American's intake has increased about 35 percent....A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that the rise of type 2 diabetes since 1980 has closely paralleled the increased use of sweeteners, particularly corn syrup." (Mark Santora, New York Times, January 12, 2006.)

Americans were getting fatter fast. Fast food-high in calories, low in nutrition-was the fastest-growing segment of the food economy. It was cheap, and seductive. "Food shouldn't be fast," Alice insisted. "And it shouldn't be cheap."(less)

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Feb 25, 2009

Irene rated it

Shelves: 2009

What I learned:

1. Baby pigeon is a squab.
2. Truffles on anything makes it better.
3. Slow food will prevent disease and obesity. Fast food be gone!
4. Butter is alright to use. use it. Forget the "i can't believe its not butter" mentality.
5. Life is not about the destination of the day, week, or year. The journey is what makes life liveable.
6. Things will work themselves out whether you have a meltdown or not. So don't have one.
7. It's b...more

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Aug 02, 2010

Sonia rated it

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I guess if you come up with a fancy name for something, and endlessly tell people you are the embodiment of it, and you convince people to put their money into it, you can suddenly become the "revolutionary pioneer/inventor" of "slow food" or "local food," or, really, the things-that-people-have-done-to-sustain-their-families-and-communities-for-ages. And you can then make your food inaccessible to most people. Ugh. This book made me mad! Felt like a shiny, advert...more

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Jan 25, 2010

Amy Harper rated it

This is a very inspiring story with an intriguing main character, though it doesn't idolize Alice Waters or anyone in the local, organic food movement. It's an honest and open telling of the history of the restaurant and how Alice Waters came to be the political, philosophical leader she is today. Her story is very timely with recent attention on the dangers of commercial food production. Alice really was one of the first to talk about the importance of eating only the best, local food, and maki...more

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Dec 12, 2011

Katie rated it

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I had heard of Chez Panisse before, although I have never had the pleasure of dining there. I plan to one day, but for now I decided that reading about it could be interesting.

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse is a history of the lady and her restaurant and how absolutely improbable her success has been. In reading this book you see that while her palette may be impeccable, her stubbornness to do things her way caused huge financial losses that for anyone else would have brought their re...more

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