Food can change the world
With her hands, Alice mixes Waters mixed salad and vinaigrette in a bowl. The short-haired little woman works in big, gentle movements, as if she did not want to eat, but embrace the world. Finished. She tastes a leaflet and smiles satisfied: tastes perfect!
Alice Waters is a passionate woman. At first glance, the 64-year-old looks rather shy, as if she has lost the orientation. But that's wrong. She knows exactly where she stands. The "Gourmet Magazine" recently honored her as the most influential figure in modern American cuisine, and celebrity chef and scandal author Anthony Bourdain ("Confessions of a Chef") likened her to a Khmer Rouge guerrilla fighter for her imperturbability. For decades, Waters has been as stubbornly committed to serving locally grown and environmentally friendly food. Nothing special? But. Because Waters already started when there was not even an organic movement and no organic farmers. Neither in the US nor anywhere else in the world.
Alice Waters: High Priestess of the Food Revolution
Today, the New York Times calls her "High Priestess" of the food revolution in the US. In keeping with their role, Waters recently suggested in a much-discussed open letter that the Obama would also like to set a good example in the kitchen. With a Victory Garden, as was the case during World War II, the First Family should show the Americans how important fresh, untreated and best-self-harvested products are for healthy eating.
With success: At the end of March, Michelle Obama broke ground in front of the cameras around the world for an eco-setting in the garden of the White House. Waters says it's easy for her to preach the same thing over and over again - even if it annoys people. She does that because she loves food. "And if you love everything is easy."
Her love began in the mid-sixties. With a friend, Alice Waters spent a year in France studying cultural science. But Alice and her friend soon visited cafés and restaurants far more often than the lecture hall. So good had the two students from the California Ber keley had not eaten in their lives yet. Fish tasted like fish, tomatoes like tomatoes and peaches - like paradise. Alice could not get enough, from the café au lait with crispy baguette and apricot jam in the morning to the evening menus, flavored with the wonderful herbs of southern France, with tender garlic and aromatic olive oil. And spend hours with friends sitting around the table sharing thoughts.
An unknown universe. At that time the idea for the "Chez Panisse" was born. For a restaurant where guests should feel at home as with friends. Where there should be only one menu, every day another. Always from fresh ingredients, as pure and natural as possible, according to the season and the fresh offer of the region.
This was revolutionary at a time when the US was not running a frozen-food restaurant, where fast food, agribusiness, and microwave became more and more a part of eating habits. Alice Waters was 27 years old and had a degree in cultural studies when she opened the "Chez Panisse" restaurant in 1972 in a rundown house in Berkeley. It started as a project with friends, artists and intellectuals, hardly anyone of whom had previously worked in the hospitality industry. There was a philosopher in the kitchen, and Alice, who had never knelt before, served the guests. Back from France, she had cooked herself through recipe books of classic French authors, until she had a feeling for it. She knew exactly how many shallots sweet the gravy, how tender the duck should be cooked. And she passed on her knowledge, but no food left the kitchen without her having tried before.
Alice Waters' "Chez Panisse" has repeatedly been the best restaurant in the USA
Alice herself was the soul of the restaurant. She'd made the dining room casual and inviting, always with a huge bouquet of fresh flowers on a table where four more paying guests could have eaten. Atmosphere meant more to her than money. She never suited herself to a business woman, and the financial survival of "Chez Panisse" was secured by others. A shaky business, though this restaurant was never cheap. Because only the search for the suitable local products cost years, nerves and money.Good ducks discovered Alice in San Francisco's Chinatown, they met hippies in the mountains of California who could keep goats and deliver fresh cheeses, they persuaded farmers to rear an old chicken breed, or bought the catch of the fishermen who worked without trawls day. Her friends rattled off the gardens of relatives, there were fragrant herbs, there succulent peaches. In Northern California, she found smallholders willing to run organic farming. Today, more than 60 local businesses supply organically produced food to the restaurant.
After the first chaotic time the success came. The "Chez Panisse" has been voted the best restaurant in the US on several occasions. The "California Cuisine", today synonymous with aromatic, health-oriented cuisine, got its name here. And in the neighborhood was Berkeley's famous gourmet district, where politically correct lifestyle mixes with enjoyment.
Alice Waters used her newly acquired reputation for her cause: she wrote nine cookbooks, gave lectures, gave interviews, and founded a foundation that promotes gardens in schools so that children can grow their own fruit and vegetables for lunch. And she is America's first representative of the slow food movement, which is committed to healthy, sustainably produced foods worldwide.
She has changed a lot. For example, everywhere in the US there are Farmers' Markets, where organic farmers sell their products. The markets are popular. People know each other, know where the beef comes from, and the market woman knows who she's selling it to. "Of course we also depend on each other, but this kind of community is wonderful!" Says Waters and smiles again.
Every person has to eat, every day. "And what we eat can change the world!" However, if you want to do that in the "Chez Panisse", you should reserve weeks in advance, because the restaurant has become a myth. And if someone grumbles: "But I can also cook at home!", Waters replies cheerfully: "Great! Then go and cook it yourself!"
Further information: www.chezpanisse.com
