alice waters and chez panisse

On food in other countries:
In Greece,
we'd cook everyday.
The people had these big pig roasts, with everybody dancing.
There was a certain poverty, certainly, but it was a beautiful way they lived their lives in spite of it.

French food is family food.
French homes had vegetables, nearly always local, fresh, and plainly cooked. The poorest people always ate well, always had a salad and a beautiful soup with beans and cabbage and lovely things. It always tasted good.

On Alice:
It is a principle in Alice's life that any man who has been her lover will be her friend forever.

As she began to imagine the food, the lighting, the feeling, the communitarian ethos that her restaurant would embody, Alice knew, at last, what she wanted.

Nobody else had her zeal, her imagination, her inexhaustable energy, her innate authority.

She was married to her restaurant.

Talented amateurism
unassuming perfection

When you're in love with somebody, you really learn things in a way you'll never forget.
We had this very romantic way of being together. We always danced together. We went on trips together. I always wanted to dance with him.


we were in love with what we were doing.


every kid has something she's good at. you just have to find out what that is. it's what gives them a sense of confidence.

Her devotion to excellence could inspire large numbers of people.



On food:

purist approach

Good cooking meant finding the freshest ingredients, then doing as little as possible to them.

flawless looking but half dead produce.
My idea of organic was to grow everything so, so carefully.

The meal that made you happy the way great home cooking did.

Happy plants! A good farmer's got to know how to access plant health.

If you could eat in only one restaurant for the rest of your life, Chez Panisse would be the one to choose.

A Delicious Revolution (for clothes would be, beautiful revolution? when the goods are good)

Those of us who work with food suffer from an image of being involved in an elite, frivolous pastime that has little relation to anything important or meaningful. But in fact we are in a position to cause people to make important connections between what they are eating and a host of crucial environmental, social, and health issues.

Inspiration:
There's always money for great ideas.

Greatness must be earned.


California is still frontier country, free from the restraints of stodgy tradition.

Our primary motive is not profit, it is to educate ourselves and the public.

She'll just say: here's how I want a thing to be. And it's up to us to figure out how to do it.

set in motion the restless dream that became alice waters' life.