Episode 103: The Woman Who Made Me Love Cooking
During the pandemic, I learned to love cooking. I picked up a copy of the Art of Simple Cooking ad started experimenting with salad dressings, pie dough, and breads. My guest today is who I have to thank for that. Alice Waters built her restaurant, Chez Panisse, off of the food culture in France, where she visited at 19, and the values of Maria Montessori. Waters focused on organic, local, and seasonal produce and paid the farmers - not the distributors - the price for their crops. In 1995, Alice founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, an initiative that engages students in growing and cooking their own food as part of school curriculum. Today, Chez Panisse remains at its original location in Berkeley after 50 years. Since the last time we talked in March of 2021, Alice opened a new restaurant in Los Angeles called Lulu with the former head chef at Chez Panisse, David Tanis, announced the creation of the Alice Water Institute for Edible Education at UC Davis, and wrote a book. She shared with us today that she’s organizing an event called Climate, Food, Hope on the National Mall this October before the presidential elections.
As you might have guessed, I won’t be publishing episodes as frequently as once a week anymore; I’ve gone into high school but still want to bring important conversations like this to you every few months.
Ezra
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