Chez Panisse facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chez Panisse
The front entrance to Chez Panisse
Restaurant information
Established	1971
Current owner(s)	Alice Waters
Food type	Local/organic, California
City	Berkeley
State	California
Country	United States

Chez Panisse is a famous restaurant in Berkeley, California. It is known for starting new food trends. These include California cuisine and the idea of "farm-to-table" eating.

The restaurant focuses on using fresh, high-quality ingredients. They work directly with local farmers, ranchers, and dairies. This helps them get the best local and organic products.

Chez Panisse has two main dining areas. The main restaurant downstairs offers a special menu that changes every day. This menu uses ingredients that are in season. Upstairs, the cafe has a different menu where you can choose individual dishes. The cafe's prices are usually lower.

History of Chez Panisse

The restaurant was opened in 1971 by Alice Waters. She is a well-known chef, writer, and food activist. She started Chez Panisse with Paul Aratow, a film producer. The restaurant's name comes from a character in a French story.

Alice Waters and Paul Aratow had a clear idea for their restaurant. They wanted to use only food that was fresh and in season. It had to be grown locally and in a way that was good for the Earth. This means using organic and sustainable farming methods.

They believed that good ingredients were the most important thing. They did not focus on low prices or having many different foods all year round. This was because they wanted to use only what was grown nearby. This focus on local California ingredients helped create what is now called California cuisine.

Victoria Wise was the first chef at Chez Panisse. Alice Waters and the restaurant worked hard to build connections with local farmers. Many of these farmers still provide food to the restaurant today. This way of getting food was very new at the time.

The restaurant building has been updated a few times. This happened after fires in 1982 and 2013.

What Inspired Chez Panisse

The Chez Panisse downstairs kitchen and dining room

Chez Panisse's cooking style was mostly inspired by French food. Alice Waters had studied in France in the early 1960s. She learned a lot about French food values there. These included buying local produce and avoiding food waste.

One important influence was an old French cookbook from the 1920s. It was called La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange. Paul Aratow, one of the founders, even translated this book into English. Other inspirations came from French vineyard owners and famous food writers.

Cool Food Inventions

Chez Panisse is known for creating some new and exciting food ideas:

• Farm-to-table and California cuisine: This is the main idea of the restaurant. It means using fresh, local ingredients directly from farms. This helped create a new style of cooking called California cuisine.
• California-style pizza: In 1980, the cafe started making a special kind of pizza. It was baked in their own pizza oven. They topped it with many different local ingredients.
• Goat Cheese Salad: This salad first appeared in the late 1970s. It has soft goat cheese that is marinated in olive oil and herbs. The cheese is then coated in bread crumbs and baked. It is served with fresh, lightly dressed greens.
• In-house carbonated tap water: Since 2006, the restaurant has made its own sparkling water. They filter their tap water and add bubbles. This replaced buying bottled water.

The Art of Chez Panisse

The restaurant's visual style is also very special. A designer named David Lance Goines created many posters for Chez Panisse. His art helped define the restaurant's look in the 1970s and 1980s. His style was influenced by Japanese art and a German art movement called Art Nouveau.

Patricia Curtan is another artist who worked with Chez Panisse. She designed many of the restaurant's menus and some cookbooks. She used a special printing method called linocut prints. She even published a book about her menu designs in 2011.

Famous Chefs Who Worked Here

Many talented chefs have worked at Chez Panisse before becoming famous themselves. Here are some of them:

See also

• Gourmet Ghetto
• Greens Restaurant
• Moosewood Restaurant