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Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution

Thomas McNamee (Goodreads Author),

R.W. Apple Jr. (Foreword by)

3.86 · Rating details · 3,301 ratings · 322 reviews

Collectible, 1st edition hdbk. in Very Good condition. DJ and cover both very good, spine tight /sturdy, pages clean /unmarked. Book was purchased & shelved w/out being read. Black remainder mark on bottom edges near spine. Ships USPS media mail w/ Tracking # provided. Int'l buyers contact seller to confirm shipping details PRIOR to purchase. CL-3012018-2

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Hardcover, 400 pages

Published March 22nd 2007 by Penguin Press HC, The

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Aug 16, 2011 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: bio-memoir, food

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 everything ...more

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Mar 04, 2009 Molly rated it it was amazing

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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Mar 21, 2009 Schmacko rated it it was amazing

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:

As the food

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:

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.
...more

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Feb 22, 2017 Jessica rated it it was ok

This book was fine. Heavens knows I love cooking, restaurants, and food, but I felt like nobody in the book was very inspiring. Alice was a visionary but so much of the way she lived her life left me feeling like "why am I wasting my time reading 300 pages about her"? Also, the material and treatment of it just felt a little bit snobby. One of those books that you wish had been a five page article that you read in a magazine or something.

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Feb 04, 2009 Irene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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 better for you if it goes directly from the earth to the stove ...more

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Dec 24, 2007 Mark Poons rated it it was ok

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? The author ...more

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Oct 30, 2007 Alison rated it really liked it

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 seasonal ingredients. ...more

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Sep 07, 2008 Naida rated it it was amazing

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 to know more about ...more

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Mar 13, 2010 Felicia Holtz rated it liked it

This is an authorized biography but it is just as catty and chatty as an unauthorized version would have been. I am fascinated at the long, strange trip Alice Waters has been on. I am somewhat cynical that she singlehandedly brought about organic farming and local cuisine, but nonetheless, I am grateful for the battles she continues to fight on behalf of our nations food. This is a fun read that will also make you crave really good food.

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Dec 12, 2013 Maureen rated it it was ok

I don't know what I was expecting from this book but it was an ok, kind of gossipy book. Not trashy enough for a 'beach read' but not that interesting otherwise. Maybe Alice Waters really is a flake who almost always falls upwards.

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Aug 31, 2017 Emily rated it it was ok

Ms. Waters is a bit of an egocentric, to say the least. The book itself was too chatty.

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Aug 14, 2008 Kathleen rated it really liked it

if you like food,France, dream of opening a restaurant, and support organic farmers -- you'll love it. but beware, it makes you hungry!

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Mar 10, 2008 Carla Jean rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: foodies

Recommended to Carla Jean by: Elisa Munoz

Shelves: readin2008

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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Dec 03, 2014 Marisa rated it really liked it

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution
By Thomas McNamee
ISBN 978-0143113089
400 Pp.
Reviewed by Marisa Kallenberger

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution is the first authorized biography of Chef Alice Waters. It serves as a chronological history of her personal growth as well as the evolution of her restaurant Chez Panisse, in ...more

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Jul 09, 2017 Julieann Wielga rated it it was amazing

I love Little Free Libraries. Fate takes a hand in the books one encounters and therefore reads.

I have come to believe that Alice Waters is a genius. Here is a sentence from her cookbook written in 1984."If you plant a garden, it can change your whole style of cooking. Even a tiny plot with just a few herbs, some salad greens, garlic, leeks and beans can have a dramatic effect....a small-scale garden can open a new world of grateful subservience to the seasons. Gardening can become your primary I love Little Free Libraries. Fate takes a hand in the books one encounters and therefore reads.

I have come to believe that Alice Waters is a genius. Here is a sentence from her cookbook written in 1984."If you plant a garden, it can change your whole style of cooking. Even a tiny plot with just a few herbs, some salad greens, garlic, leeks and beans can have a dramatic effect....a small-scale garden can open a new world of grateful subservience to the seasons. Gardening can become your primary source of culinary inspiration: to be able to go to your back yard, pick something and make a wonderful, simple, impromptu dish of pasta with it is immensely gratifying." I love that phrase "grateful subservience to the seasons".

In reading the story of Alice and Chez Panisse, so many things surprised me.
No one who was at Chez Panisse on opening night had ever worked in a restaurant, including Alice. That night was pretty much a disaster.

A student at Berkely, a trip to France was Alice's inspiration. But the French approach to food fell on very fertile ground. At the end of the book, one of the author's strongest remarks was that no one every questioned Alice's palette. She was has an incredible sensory intelligence. Not only in taste, but also in feel and beauty. This is perhaps a kind of brilliance that we are willing to pay for in buying luxuries but hardly every recognize when tabulating talent.

Restaurant life was incredibly demanding- and even more so the Chez Panisse way. Only one choice is offered every night, and that meal is made from the local pickings in Berkeley that day. The restaurant was open 7 days a week. and after everyone had left for the evening and the kitchen had been cleaned, the staff danced and partied together, fueled on a mixtures of cocaine, love affairs, wine and marijauna.

At first the restaurant was very French, recipes were built on butter, wine, rich sauces, exotic sea food, but gradually exposures to Italian influences simplified the menu. Alice came to be influenced by Italian home cooks, who find just a few perfect ingredients in their gardens and from that build a dish which highlights an exquisite piece of fruit, or a perfect fresh fish, or perfect vegetable. Alice is said to be behind, despite Julia Child's skepticism, the California Cuisine and the slow food movement.

Alice made Chez Panisse a family. So many brilliant people believed in it. Her standards were always only for perfection, and her vision is what everyone bought into. Her zest was contagious.
It is very hard to have an institution, especially a restaurant, maintain a vision from 1971 to 2017, and live beyond the founder. Yet Alice has done it. She birthed a restaurant that changed the way that Americans ate and lived. The restaurant demanded the whole lives of its crew, but it also gave back in all ways that a family can. Alice could do this because the table and good food and good talk is so central to well lived lives.

...more

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Sep 29, 2018 Nancy rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, biography-memoir, to-read-in-2016, to-read-in-2017, read-in-2018

Like many others, this book has literally been on my shelf for a couple of years. I first heard of Alice Waters when I participated in a local CSA and became more interested in fresh, local, organic food. I picked up this book somewhere along the way. This well-researched and well-written biography documents the growth of an individual and a movement. Alice appears to be fun and quirky, but also a perfectionist devoted to her ideas, and ultimately changing the way Americans eat. I doubt that I ...more

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Jan 19, 2020 Bill Keefe rated it it was ok

It's taken me a few years to wade through this book. I think it's because, as informative as the book is, it's somewhat weighed down by the detail. There's something...well, boring about wading through the detail of so many examples of taste, of passion, of table setting, of affairs, of drama. Well, there's simply something weighty in general about knowing too much.

That's not to say I didn't get something out of the book. Alice Waters appears to be one of a kind; a maestra, in the sense of a ...more

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Aug 28, 2017 Melissa rated it really liked it

Alice Waters is a badass. I love reading books about flawed characters (aren't we all?) who continue to defy the norms and boundaries of what is and is not or what should and should not be. Growing up on a farm and having grandparents who were farmers, I didn't know that food-to-table or slow food was a thing that not everyone had. We loved the idea of store bought cakes and Mac n cheese because as we grew up, that's how our friends ate. As I have grown up and has my own child, we have reverted ...more

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Dec 25, 2017 Tuesday H rated it liked it

Its an interesting look at an iconic restaurant, one thats blessed by the decade in which it opened. Today, Chez Panisse would have certainly failed and Alice, although exacting in her standards would probably be no more than a Rachel Ray. This book brings to light how much has changed since Chez Panisse opened and also how much hasnt. I will be forever grateful for Alice Waters and her never ending crusade to improve our food system. ...more

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Apr 24, 2018 Devin Bostick rated it it was amazing

Remarkable rise of foodies in America and the local movement that helped it grow. Sure Ill give it 5/5 because I love the story, the main points are there, and I love food. Did it pull in historical context, yes. Was it trying to focus on Alice and Chez Panisse, yes. Could it have focus on more history in a Robert Caro style way, 100%! Pull in Mark Kurlansky while youre at it Thomas! The book overall did work and was quite enjoyable. ...more

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Nov 29, 2017 Mikedariano rated it liked it

Good not great. Will be interesting for people who have been to Chez Panisse, want an insight to Berkley culture, or how to start a business. Waters's recent biography, 2016 or 2017 provides more Alice, less auxiliary characters but I'm glad this book had them.

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Mar 14, 2018 Rebekah rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

Three stars is probably a bit unfair. The book was beautifully written. I just wasn't as taken with Alice as I expected to be (granted my knowledge of her is from recipe descriptions in The Art of Simple Food). So, 4-5 stars for the writing, 3 stars for the subject.

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May 26, 2019 In rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019

You know that delicious farm to table quirky meal you ate in a renovated barn last month? You can thank Alice for much of that experience. This book will remind you that one person with an imagination and never say die effort can change a corner of society.

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Apr 15, 2018 Jennifer Smith rated it really liked it

Enlightening. I am ashamed to admit that I was not impressed after my one visit to Chez Panisse, but now, having a better understanding of what she and the restaurant are truly about I want to revisit it.

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Aug 12, 2018 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A really intriguing history and so great to hear how much impact it's truly had on the food world (and the Bay!).

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May 09, 2019 Keri rated it it was amazing

Really enjoyed this book. It's a topic I love, but her life is also very rich, interesting and full of stories. It was well researched and written, engaging, inspiring and mouth watering.

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Mar 22, 2017 Meg Koch rated it it was ok

The title is a synopsis of this book about a well known chef - her restaurant and her life. Great idea, but somehow the book was a slow read. Maybe too many details. Maybe needed stronger/better editing.

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May 06, 2019 JoJoff48 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Felt like me in Paris in 1973! Loved reading this right to the end. An inspiration and got me up out of my lassitudinal cooking slump.

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Oct 01, 2014 Brooke Everett rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: food

An easy read that's just somehow overall agreeable: not too challenging, there's no reason to feel bad if you're sitting by the pool and you doze off for a second, but it's certainly not trashy, either.

Sometimes I'm not sure where I fit in as a traditional cog in a professional sense, since I handle so many tasks. I loved learning about this organization, which began in such a free-wheeling fashion, and seeing reflections of my own position and duties.

It's also a very interesting story about An easy read that's just somehow overall agreeable: not too challenging, there's no reason to feel bad if you're sitting by the pool and you doze off for a second, but it's certainly not trashy, either.

Sometimes I'm not sure where I fit in as a traditional cog in a professional sense, since I handle so many tasks. I loved learning about this organization, which began in such a free-wheeling fashion, and seeing reflections of my own position and duties.

It's also a very interesting story about trajectory (please see quote below from page 10). What would have happened if Alice's friend Sara Flanders hadn't encouraged her to go to France? Would Chez Panisse exist?

And the food is an incredible character in itself. The menus are so creative and so impractical from a restaurant sense, but that's what makes them such a feat.

"She was very smart, but she was in danger of becoming an irredeemable party girl."
"That moment was an early instance of what came to be a pattern in Alice's life: people stepping in to rescue her at just the right moment, and in doing so drastically altering her world. Although she has always seemed to lead a well-ordered life, Alice still sometimes characterizes herself as more acted upon than purposeful." p. 10

David Goines: "'We had a fair amount of failure. We were willing to fail, which is absolutely essential to any kind of learning.'" p. 26

Fritz Streiff: "'Alice falls in love,' says Fritz. 'This is the story of Alice's life. She falls in love with a dish. She falls in love with a lamp. She falls in love with a bowl of cherries. She falls in love with a man. Alice loves men.'" p. 69

"The Chez Panisse culture's oscillation between joy and gloom was by now an inextricable component of its identity. Fame had come, and with it an increase in revenues; then Alice and the staff didn't want to have to live up to the glory." p. 155

"Nearly always, Chez Panisse managed to present a calm, contented face to the world. Nearly always, there was something going haywire behind the scenes." p. 156

Chef Paul Bertolli: "The frustrating part was that there was a last-minuteness to a lot of her decision making. People call her a visionary. I think she has reactions more than visions. She can see best in a moment of crisis. When everything was about to happen, and something wasn't right, she had no qualms about saying, 'We've got to do something about this.' Well, she could have done something about it three hours ago, too, if she had applied herself, but there is something about this live moment when she has a reaction and things have to change." p. 183

"Alice had become known as the mother of the New American Cooking, or California cuisine, as it came to be called. Was she the personification of this new movement because she grabbed credit from others? Was it because she always went running to the nearest camera or reporter's notebook? The answer is not simple. Certainly she liked the attention, the admiration, the fame. What is determinative, however, is not so much Alice herself as contemporary culture, which demands that every story have a hero. If you're a writer, you'll find it very hard to sell an article about an idea unless that idea is embodied in a hero (or a villain). People don't want abstractions; they want flesh-and-blood heroes. In Alice, so soft-spoken, so passionate, yet also so flustered and inarticulate sometimes, people had found a hero who was also unmistakably, unheroically human." p. 204-205 ...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Robyn marked it as did-not-finish

Shelves: culinary, nonfiction, library, biography-or-memoir

I'm giving this one up as a bad job. Chez Panisse is a legend around here, and when I was going to Cal even more so. When I asked my absolutely-uninterested-in-chefs-or-gourmet-food-or-expensive-restaurants mother if she knew who Alice Waters was, she immediately said "Yeah, I mean, essentially. I couldn't tell you anything about her, but I know she's from that restaurant in Berkeley that helped kick off the local food movement in the 70s." So, yeah, being a Bay Area girl born and raised and a I'm giving this one up as a bad job. Chez Panisse is a legend around here, and when I was going to Cal even more so. When I asked my absolutely-uninterested-in-chefs-or-gourmet-food-or-expensive-restaurants mother if she knew who Alice Waters was, she immediately said "Yeah, I mean, essentially. I couldn't tell you anything about her, but I know she's from that restaurant in Berkeley that helped kick off the local food movement in the 70s." So, yeah, being a Bay Area girl born and raised and a Berkeley girl at heart, this should have been a book for me.

But instead ohmigod so dull! I don't know if McNamee thought people wouldn't trust that he did due diligence since Waters approved his project, but he just kept cramming in "so-and-so told me..." or "in the words of so-and-so..." absolutely everything he wrote had to be backed up by quotes from multiple sources. That made really slow going and most of the time events just did not move forward because it took so long to get everybody's opinions on the page. (I also could have done with fewer menus and more events)

Plus, what is the story here? Alice Waters has built her life on being irresponsible and falling in love with anyone who gets near her with a little flash in their personality. Everybody who comes into contact with her enables her to continue being irresponsible, saving the restaurant, bailing her out financially, allowing her to go without paying them or being straight with them, etc. I was really disgusted at the part where they talked about how this restaurant that was "one big family" "such a family" "always making room for anyone" "allowing anyone to take any time they needed" etc., would fire people and the fired person would know it was Alice's decision, but Alice would never be the one to do the firing, would never speak a word of negativity to the person. Yeah, that's a family. Do a bad job, Alice doesn't like it, she won't give you feedback, she'll just have someone else fire you so she can keep her hands clean and stay above the fray.

I am beyond grateful for what Chez Panisse brought to food. I wouldn't have the opportunity (or knowledge or even awareness) to cook a quarter of the dishes I enjoy making if they hadn't blazed the trail they did. But I am never someone who thinks the end justifies the means, and I simply hate when people get rewarded for bad behavior. So instead of forcing myself to finish a boring-as-hell novel about someone who rapidly loses my respect with every page, I'll let this one go and preserve the last of my appreciation for Waters and what she did.

One unrelated note: Waters was at UCSB as a freshman the same year a relative of mine was, and left the same time that relative did, for the same reason. Was pretty funny to think they may have stumbled across each other at the time.
________________________________
First thoughts before reading:
When you flip through an authorized biography and see that the author has included a 3 page list of the dates he had recorded interviews with various involved people, as well as a 4.5 page bibliography of books he read to prepare to write the book, and an 11 page index with entries such as "Chez Panisse, moral conflict inherent in" and "Waters Alice Louise, shifting moods of", you can pretty well expect a biography that covers it all. Now to discover whether the book is actually any good, or just has great depth and breadth. ...more

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