Recommended Reading: Alice Waters’ Biography

Alice Waters and Chez Panisse Alice Waters has significantly influenced the movement toward healthier living, modern organic farming, and reviving the connection between the earth and the dinner table.

There is surely no better model of what Dining Details Personal Chef Service strives to accomplish than the model set forth by Alice Waters, the face of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. Waters has accomplished more than owning and running a restaurant; she has stimulated an entire movement toward healthier living and increased consciousness of where our food comes from, reconnecting people to the nature of seasons, locally produced ingredients, and to the enjoyment of the process of cooking and eating together as a family. 

Having never compromised on the quality of the food she bought for the restaurant and for her family, she valued “the way it was grown, harvested, handled, and shipped,” wanting that to be “virtuous, too- that is, to be good for the earth and its creatures, and good, if possible, for society” (p236). In direct alignment with the values that Dining Details is founded on, she says “At the table we are nourished and gladdened, put in touch with the source of life... It is central to both the deepest and the most joyous of human activities: generosity, companionship, nourishment, and growth” (p220). 

A vehement fighter against the rise of fast food and processed convenience foods, Waters was the first advocate of the Slow Foods movement in America, connecting Chez Panisse style values of local organic farm fresh cooking to European ways of slow cooking and slow eating. Alice also pioneered the “Edible Schoolyard,” a program that provides edible gardens in schools, where children not only learn how to grow their own food, but also learn the importance and rewards of using organic soil and produce, eating whole foods, working together, and enjoying the process. Some college campuses today, including Yale, provide all organic cafeteria foods, thanks to Alice. 

The slow foods movement, the edible schoolyard, and Chez Panisse in all of its complexity, all focused on one main thing: connection. From the microorganisms that nourish the soil, to the live vegetable plucked from the plant and served to the table still full of life and nutrients, to the collaboration of cooking and enjoyment of eating together, and the understanding of sustainability- that we are all connected and need to respect the earth and one another- Waters promulgated the notion that our consumption should realize and appreciate that connection.