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.
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 master artist but also a master orchestrator, and Mr.
McNamee does a wonderful job showing this artist in all her fullness, But just as clear as her palette, so muddied is her person, and thus the book, Genius in full bloom, passion at it's most intense and most intrusive and complex human being creating storms while she navigates the craft, Chez Panisse, it seems, is a perfect reflection of its founder, And Mr. McNamee does this well, as well,
And I and I believe any reader even modestly interested in Alice Waters and the revolution in eating and cooking that she helped usher in learned an awful lot.
Underlines and margin notes abound in my copy, Go here, try this, how is that done I could set out a year's worth of activities and followon learning from the things I picked up in this book.
But in the end, the end came slowly, . . over years and I believe it's as a result not of the tale but of the telling, If you don't want to read the book which is enjoyable, here is a timeline that hits the high points: sitelink sfgate. com/blog/ 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 foodtotable 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 back to the homecooking that my grandmothers passed on homemade bread, preserving food, etc.
It does sound more romantic through the writing of this author than in the vernacular of rural America where I grew up, But I love her fight to make school food better, What I learned:
, Baby pigeon is a squab,
. Truffles on anything makes it better,
. Slow food will prevent disease and obesity, Fast food be gone!
, Butter is alright to use, use it. Forget the "i can't believe its not butter" mentality,
. Life is not about the destination of the day, week, or year, The journey is what makes life liveable,
. Things will work themselves out whether you have a meltdown or not, So don't have one.
. It's better for you if it goes directly from the earth to the stove to the table to your mouth,
. don't oversalt.
. eat the dessert and enjoy it, as long as its made fresh, You only live once.
. Its ok to spend money on spectacular meals in restaurantsas long as its not a chain that uses frozen, tasteless things that used to be food.
As you can see, I learned a lot,
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, 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 how the restaurant developed and Alice' passions.
Than I can think of no finer book, 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 wellresearched and wellwritten 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 will ever get to eat at the restaurant, but I admire Alice, and how she is trying to lead us to good, healthy food.
I plan to look for her cookbooks though I think the recipes will be beyond my culinary abilities at the library,
"It is important to encourage all the other values beyond nourishment and sustainability and the basic things, Beauty. When you set a table, you know, take time to do that teaching the pleasure of work that's probably one of the most important lessons.
It's also about diversity. It's about replenishing. It's about concentration. It's about sensuality. It's about purity. It's about love. It's about compassion. It's about sharing. How many things All those, just in the appearance of eating, If you decide you're going to eat in a very specific way, It changes your life, and it changes the world around you, "
"Slow food is traditional food, It is also local and local cuisine is one of the most important ways we identify with the place and the region where we live.
It is the same with the buildings in our towns, cities, and villages, Welldesigned places and buildings that relate to the locality and landscape and that put people before cars enhance a sense of community and rootedness, All these things are connected, We no more want to live in anonymous concrete blocks that are just like anywhere else in the world than we want to eat anonymous junk food which can be bought anywhere.
"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 earlythe 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 oldtimers 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 its 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 massmarket terms, Seasonsadopts this same thought.
Also an excellent Orlando version and my favorite local restaurant is the California atop Disneys 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 flavorrobbing 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,
Thats not to say McNamees book answers all the questions, Why and how Waters became so obsessed with food still seems a mystery at the end of the book its a question thats better to ponder, so McNamee smartly doesnt provide an answer.
Also, there are many stories in the book of human romances most of them fiery and shortlived next to the legacy of Chez Panisse and maybe thats 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, its 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 youve heard of them if youre fixated on these things like I amJeanPierre 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 its this messy and wondrous, I alos love the simple blackandwhite 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 theyre 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,
.