Foodie Chap With Chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse

KCBS radio "Foodie Chap" and KPIX 5 television "Eye On The Bay" host Liam Mayclem introduces us to the culinary stars behind the food and wine loved by so many in the Bay Area.

 
KCBS Foodie Chap Podcast:

VIDEO:
"5 Questions with Chef Alice Waters"

Alice Waters, chef, author, and the proprietor of Chez Panisse, is an American pioneer of a culinary philosophy that maintains that cooking should be based on the finest and freshest seasonal ingredients that are produced sustainably and locally. She is a passionate advocate for a food economy that is "good, clean, and fair." Over the course of nearly forty years, Chez Panisse has helped create a community of scores of local farmers and ranchers whose dedication to sustainable agriculture assures the restaurant a steady supply of fresh and pure ingredients.

In 1996, Waters's commitment to education led to the creation of The Edible Schoolyard at Berkeley's Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School: a one-acre garden, an adjacent kitchen-classroom, and an "eco-gastronomic" curriculum.

By actively involving a thousand students in all aspects of the food cycle, The Edible Schoolyard is a model public education program that instills the knowledge and values we need to build a humane and sustainable future. The program is nationally recognized for its efforts to integrate gardening, cooking, and sharing school lunch into the core academic curriculum. Alice established the Chez Panisse Foundation in 1996 to support the Schoolyard and encourage similar programs that use food traditions to teach, nurture, and empower young people. The success of The Edible Schoolyard led to the School Lunch Initiative, whose national agenda integrates a nutritious daily lunch and gardening experience into the academic curriculum of all public schools in the United States.

"Cooking to me is about a rhythm and a taste."
- Chef Alice Waters

Waters is Vice President of Slow Food International, a nonprofit organization that promotes and celebrates local artisanal food traditions and has 100,000 members in over 130 countries. She is the author of eight books, including The Art of Simple Food: Notes and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. Her latest book "The Art of Simple Food II" - inspires one to cook at home using fresh, seasonal ingredients. However this book goes one step further and highlights the garden.

I met Alice for a Foodie Chap Chat recently right before her book signing at Book Passage in San Francisco. Alice came with fresh produce in hand, procured from the Saturday morning CUESA Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. We talked about the reopening of Chez Panisse after the March 2013 fire plus how her time in England informed her culinary career.

Do yourself a favour and make "The Art of Simple Food II" part of your cookbook library and enjoy the conversation with our beloved ALICE WATERS.

 
Cheers!

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