Alice Waters facts for kids
Waters at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, February 2015
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| Born | April 28, 1944 Chatham Borough, New Jersey, U.S. |
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| Cooking style | California |
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Rating(s)
Michelin stars
  (2007-2010) |
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Current restaurant(s)
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Alice Louise Waters (born April 28, 1944) is a famous American chef, restaurant owner, and food writer. In 1971, she opened a restaurant called Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. This restaurant became well-known for starting the "farm-to-table" movement. This means using fresh ingredients directly from local farms. Chez Panisse also helped create "California cuisine," which focuses on fresh, seasonal foods.
Alice Waters has written several books, including Chez Panisse Cooking and The Art of Simple Food. Her memoir, Coming to my Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook, shares her life story.
In 1996, Waters started the Chez Panisse Foundation. She also created the Edible Schoolyard program at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley. She works to make sure everyone can get healthy, organic foods. Her ideas even inspired Michelle Obama to plant an organic vegetable garden at the White House.
Early Life and Education
Alice Waters was born in Chatham Borough, New Jersey, on April 28, 1944. Her father, Charles Allen Waters, was a business consultant. Her mother, Margaret Waters, was a homemaker.
Alice graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967. She studied French culture there. While in college, she studied in France. She says she "lived at the bottom of a market street" and learned a lot about food just by being there.
She brought this way of cooking back to Berkeley. She believes that food is more than just something to eat; it's a way of life.
How Alice Waters Was Influenced
Learning from Travel and Teachers
Alice Waters traveled to Europe, where she first trained at a Montessori school in London. The Montessori method teaches children through hands-on activities. Waters used these ideas in her "edible education" programs. Her Edible Schoolyard helps kids learn by growing and preparing their own food.
After London, Waters visited Turkey. This trip taught her a lot about being welcoming and respecting local communities. A young Turkish boy, who had very little, shared tea and cheese with her. This kind act deeply influenced how Waters thought about hospitality in her own restaurant.
From Turkey, Waters returned to France for a year. Her travels made her love French food even more. This inspired her to open Chez Panisse when she returned to California.
Mentors and Friends
Waters was influenced by Elizabeth David, a famous English cookbook author. She also learned from Richard Olney, an American expert on French food. Olney taught her about simple, rustic cooking.
Olney also introduced Waters to Lucien and Lulu Peyraud. They owned a vineyard in France. Lulu Peyraud's cooking greatly influenced Waters's menus at Chez Panisse. Waters felt like she had found a second family with them.
Alice Waters also learned Chinese cooking from Cecilia Chiang. They became lifelong friends. Waters said that Chiang helped make Chinese food popular in America, just like Julia Child did for French food.
Chez Panisse Restaurant
Starting the Restaurant
In 1971, Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse. She named it after a character from some French films. The restaurant was a team effort from the start. Jeremiah Tower helped create some of the early recipes. He used fresh, organic ingredients to make refined dishes.
Waters originally wanted Chez Panisse to be a place to entertain her friends. She soon realized it was hard to find fresh, high-quality ingredients. So, she started working with local farmers and producers. She still gets ingredients from this local network today.
In 1980, Waters opened the Chez Panisse Café upstairs. This café offers a different menu for lunch and dinner. In 1984, she opened Café Fanny, named after her daughter. It was a casual European-style café that served breakfast and lunch. Café Fanny closed in 2012.
Through the Chez Panisse Foundation, Waters started the Edible Schoolyard project. This project helps students learn to grow and prepare their own food.
Why Organic Food Matters
A main idea at Chez Panisse is using organic ingredients. Waters strongly believes that organic foods are better for the environment, healthier for people, and taste better than non-organic foods.
Waters became interested in organic food because she was looking for the best taste. She says, "When I opened up Chez Panisse, I was only thinking about taste. And in doing that, I ended up at the doorstep of [organic farmers]."
Today, Waters wants to change the USDA school lunch program. She wants it to include organic, local fruits and vegetables. Her passion for organic food began at her restaurant, where she saw how important organic ingredients were for delicious meals.
Helping Communities and Schools
The Chez Panisse Foundation
Alice Waters works to promote fresh, sustainable food from local farms. She does this through her work as a food activist. In 1996, for the restaurant's 25th anniversary, Waters started the Chez Panisse Foundation.
The foundation's goal is to improve public education by using food. It teaches young people about growing, cooking, and sharing food. This helps students learn and build a healthy future. The foundation has worked with the Berkeley Unified School District to create school programs that include food education.
The Chez Panisse Foundation is a non-profit organization.
The Edible Schoolyard Program
The main project of the Chez Panisse Foundation is the Edible Schoolyard program. It's located at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. The Edible Schoolyard started in 1995. It has a 1-acre organic garden and a kitchen classroom. Students learn to grow, harvest, and prepare food from the garden. This helps them understand the environment and their community.
Waters's work at the Edible Schoolyard led to her School Lunch Initiative. This project aims to give school children a new relationship with food. It wants to make healthy, fresh, and sustainable meals part of every school day. The School Lunch Initiative works with the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley.
The School Lunch Initiative focuses on providing healthy school lunches to 10,000 students in the Berkeley Unified School District. In 2005, the Chez Panisse Foundation helped Berkeley schools hire Ann Cooper. She was the director of Nutrition Services. Cooper and the foundation removed almost all processed foods from school meals. They added organic fruits and vegetables, all while staying within the school's budget. Waters believes that subjects like history, science, and art can be taught through food.
A report in 2010 showed that students in schools with strong School Lunch Initiative programs ate more fruits and vegetables. They also knew more about food. These schools included kitchen and garden classes in their lessons.
Alice Waters is a strong supporter of school lunch reform across the country. She encouraged President Bill Clinton to plant a White House garden. In 2009, she asked President Obama to plant an organic garden at the White House. This would inspire changes in the US food system. That same year, Michelle Obama, as part of her Let's Move! campaign, planted the White House organic vegetable garden. Many people see Alice Waters as a key leader in the healthy food movement.
Other Projects
There are five other Edible Schoolyard programs around the country. They are in New Orleans, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Greensboro, North Carolina.
Waters also wants to provide free school meals to all public school children in the United States. She supported the 2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. She believes free school food would create a healthier food culture in the US.
In 2003, Waters helped create the Yale Sustainable Food Project. This project aims to make sustainable food important in college education. It has an organic farm on campus and uses local products in the university's dining program.
In 2006, Waters helped start the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome. This project provides a model for simple, sustainable, and seasonal food. It also has an internship program.
Slow Food Movement
Since 2002, Alice Waters has been a vice president of Slow Food International. This organization works to protect local food traditions and different types of plants and animals. It also promotes small-scale, quality food products worldwide. Waters joined the Slow Food movement because it helps pass on food knowledge to future generations.
Books by Alice Waters
- The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook (1982)
- Chez Panisse Cooking (1988)
- Chez Panisse Vegetables (1996) (James Beard Award Winner)
- Fanny at Chez Panisse: A Child's Restaurant Adventures with 46 Recipes (1992), a storybook and cookbook for children
- The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution (2007)
- The Art of Simple Food II: Recipes, Flavor, and Inspiration from the New Kitchen (2011)
- 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering (2011)
- Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook (2017)
Awards and Honors
Alice Waters has received many awards for her cooking, environmental work, and other achievements. She has won six James Beard Foundation Awards. These include Best Chef (1992), Best Restaurant (1994), Humanitarian of the Year (1997), Lifetime Achievement Award (2004), and a Leadership Award (2011). Her cookbook Chez Panisse Vegetables also won an award in 1997.
Here are some of her awards:
- Cook's Magazine, 1982 Who's Who Top 50
- Cuisine et Vins de France, 1986 Les Meilleurs Chefs du Monde No. 10 (top ten chefs in the world)
- James Beard Foundation Award, 1992 Best Chef in America and Best Restaurant in America (Chez Panisse); she was the first woman to win Best Chef
- Bon Appétit magazine, 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award
- Gourmet magazine, 2001 Best Restaurant in America: Chez Panisse
- James Beard Foundation Award, 2004 Lifetime Achievement
- The World's 50 Best Restaurants, 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award
- Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook was named one of the 50 best cookbooks of all time by The Observer in 2010
- 2007–2010: One Michelin Star, Chez Panisse, Michelin Guide
Advocacy awards:
- James Beard Foundation Award, 1997 Humanitarian of the Year
- National Audubon Society's 2004 Rachel Carson Award Honoree
- 2008 Global Environmental Citizen Award
- 2014 National Humanities Medal
Other honors:
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, inducted 1998.
- Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.
- The California Hall of Fame, inducted 2008
- Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, selected 2008
- Princeton University, 2009, honorary Doctorate of Humanities
- French Legion of Honor in 2009
- The Wall Street Journal, 2013 Innovators' Award
- New Jersey Hall of Fame, inducted 2014
- Named one of Time magazine's Time 100 (2014)
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, inducted 2014
- Elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2014
- American University of Rome, 2015 honorary degree
- National Women's Hall of Fame, inducted 2017
See also
In Spanish: Alice Waters para niños
- Slow Food Nation
