Alice Waters: earth mother of California cuisine - chef - includes recipes - Interview

Vegetarian Times, June, 1997 by Karen Cope Straus

In her trademark cloche hat, a basketful of fresh produce slung over one shoulder, Alice Waters walked briskly through the farmers market in Berkeley, Calif., on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Shoppers and vendors recognized her instantly, identification made all the easier by a food editor and photographer trailing in her wake.

Despite the hectic pace of an interview and photo session conducted on the move through the market, Alice stopped often to chat with vendors. "Where was this grown?" "When was it picked?" she asked, squeezing and sniffing the produce before deciding whether to add it to her basket, already bulging with flowers, tangerines and leafy greens.

After our dash through the market, we head back to Chez Panisse, the landmark restaurant Waters founded 26 years ago as a "local little place for my friends and myself to have dinner." She and her restaurant are credited with changing the way Americans think about food. Before Waters, we thought of fine dining as heavy, rich French or Continental-style fare with lots of sauce. Because of Waters, we now have lighter, fresher California cuisine based on locally grown, seasonal food that is closer in spirit to the simple country foods of France and Italy.

A fussy eater as a child, Waters discovered food while traveling through France as a college student. Back in America, she worked as a Montessori teacher until opening Chez Panisse in a small, tree-shaded cottage in Berkeley in 1971. Since then, she has received national and international honors and awards including the 1992 James Beard Chef of the Year.

Waters and her Chez Panisse colleagues, many of whom have gone on to open their own innovative restaurants in the California cuisine style, have written several books, the latest being Chez Panisse Vegetables (HarperCollins, 1996).

One small step at a time, food revolutionary is

changing the way Americans think about produce.

You've set off a chain of events leading to gourmet grilled pizza, farmers markets and salad mixes in a bag. What do you think is next? Oh my goodness, I think, `No more salad mixes in a bag or what is called gourmet pizza.' I hope that people buy produce seasonally, locally and organically grown from the farmers market or grow it in their own backyard. Then I hope that they cook them very simply when they still have life in them and when they are very ripe and delicious tasting.

How do you feel about the tag bestowed upon you, "Earth Mother of California Cuisine"? (Laughing) It sounds wonderful to me, very flattering. I think that we all have to become earth mothers and earth fathers and earth children. We really have to get our hands in the earth growing things and understanding the importance of taking care of the planet where all of our food comes from.

I've heard you say that eating is an agricultural and a political act. What do you mean?

I mean that when you make a decision about what to eat, it affects the quality of life of our planet. In other words, if you buy food from people who are taking care of the land, you are supporting sustainability for future generations. Buy from people who care about our nourishment, people who care about our children, people who care about food for the right reasons. If you buy food from people who are growing it in an irresponsible way, from people who are destroying communities around the world and destroying our natural resources, then you are supporting a whole other system. I think it's a very political act to make the right decisions about what you put in your mouth.

Is Chez Panisse using 100 percent organic food? We are 100 percent organic in terms of the fruits and vegetables we serve.

I've heard debates about there being too many people on the planet to be fed organically. Do you think organic will ever be the norm? I absolutely do not believe that. I know a farmer who grows enough food on a 10-by 10-foot plot for one person for a whole year, and he farms biodynamically. We just have to think about different ways of farming. There are people who are on the forefront of this movement. Chemicals, by the way, cost a lot of money, from what I understand, but I'm not a farmer.

Is Chez Panisse moving in a more vegetarian direction? Well, we are. We certainly are close to the Mediterranean way of eating. In other words, thinking about meat as a condiment rather than as a main part of the meal.

Have you considered going vegetarian? I certainly have. Days go by that I eat only vegetable foods. I love pastas and grains and vegetables.

Are Americans changing how they think about food? I think that they are. Once they come in contact with real food, it's hard to go back. If we can just get them all connected at the farmers market or in their own backyards with growing things and picking them when they have that irresistible flavor, there's just no going back.

Does everyone have a sensitive enough nature or palate to taste or appreciate food in that way?

This is something we have to teach at school in our national curriculum but implement in each school in its own way. Children need to understand the fundamental, basic principles of food and stewardship of the land. They have to learn how to feed themselves properly. These are values that we all need to teach. So if it's not happening at home, it needs to happen in the schools.