Alice Waters of the famed Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, comes to Malibu for a literary lunch.
By Melissa Lion / Special to The Malibu Times
The birth of California Cuisine is said to have occurred in the early seventies at Chez Panisse, a restaurant located inside a rundown old stucco house in Berkeley. The restaurant itself had an unfinished upstairs, a shed out back with a fridge for the pastry chef’s butter, and a desk with unpaid receipts, unsorted and sticking out of drawers. A mix of film lovers, graduate students, backed the restaurant.And, because this was Berkeley in the 1970s the restaurant itself would embody a vision so contrary to the established ways of running an eatery, drug dealers also pitched in some cash. The author of the vision, Alice Waters, was a Berkeley graduate and a Montessori trained teacher. Montessori’s focus on sensual learning, Waters’ own exacting palate and flawless taste memory and her unyielding quest for the fine simple food and fresh ingredients she found through her travels in France, would propel Waters and Chez Panisse through years of financial and professional turmoil, and into the legendary culinary stratosphere it occupies now.
For Chez Panisse, Waters was inspired by the rustic meals she was served in France and wanted a restaurant that felt more like a home. She wanted to serve simple understated meals that would let each ingredient sing. From the beginning, despite never having a controlling share in the business, Waters has made most every decision for the restaurant, including last minute menu changes, calls on the table setting and, in the early days, writing out each menu in her own calligraphy. Her passion for simple food and for a homey restaurant is embodied in Chez Panisse’s fixed menu that changes nightly depending on what’s in season, and which ingredients pass muster with Waters.
For Waters, the quality of the ingredients is paramount. In her new book, “The Art of Simple Food,” she writes, “When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.”
Though, she writes, in the beginning seeking locally, sustainable grown food was not a philosophy but a matter of taste, over time philosophy and taste have melded. For dessert, Chez Panisse once served a single peach on a plate, not cut, peeled or cored. It seemed both a lesson and an example of the pleasure of simplicity Waters is trying to capture.
Her dreams of fresh, delicious food for all are manifested in her Edible Schoolyard project. Waters spurred and supported Berkeley’s urban Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School to tear up one of its acres of asphalt for a garden where children would grown the food they would later learn to cook.
“It’s about replenishing, it’s about concentration. It’s about sensuality. It’s about purity. It’s about love,” she said of the Edible Schoolyard.
Waters courted the Clintons for support and though they seemed receptive, and despite England’s successful similar program that was easily enacted after encouragement from celebrity chef Jaime Oliver, Water’s national vision for Edible Schoolyard has remained elusive.
For “The Art of Simple Cooking,” Waters has collected her recipes and thoughts on simple food for home cooks. At every turn she emphasizes her idea that food brings people together, that it ought to be shared and that elegance is simplicity. In her introduction, she encourages cooking together, eating together (“savor the ritual of the table”) and to “remember food is precious.” The book begins with lessons for the beginning chef and menu suggestions for everyday meals and larger gatherings. The advanced chef can certainly benefit from this book, too, if only just to remember set aside the chopping, sautéing, and boiling to simply appreciate the ingredients.
Waters writes, “What makes a good meal is not how fancy it is, or how difficult and complicated the preparations are, but how satisfying it is.”
What a reassuring statement for new and experienced cooks from a woman named Best Chef in America by the James Beard Foundation. The recipes themselves are so simple, with short ingredients lists and casual instructions, emphasizing the comfort and ease of simple food. Because Waters’ sole focus is on fresh ingredients with differing textures and flavors, the recipes are wholesome and healthy and when eating the meals, we can set aside worries about carbs and fat grams and simply enjoy the food as she wishes us to do-with love, gusto and passion.
Diesel, A Bookstore will host Alice Waters at a Literary Lunch on Thursday at noon at the Malibu Performing Arts Center. The event will be catered by local chef Jennifer Naylor. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased at Diesel, A Bookstore, 3890 Cross Creek Road.