Alice Waters on 60 Minutes (file under Everyone has got a dream)

I just finished watching Alice Waters on 60 Minutes. And what can I say that I haven’t already said. At first I was unsure about the interview because it seemed that CBS and 60 Minutes were trying to diminish her impact on the way that food is viewed in the United States.

It covered the precocious Waters development into the marvelous dreamer that she is today, was then and always will be. It touched on her push in the Slow Food movement and the resultant Slow Food Expo 2008 which took place outside of San Francisco’s City Hall as well as the Edible School Yard Program. Both of which I have written about here before. One point which she made loud and clear and that I also have written about here is that the food we are eating is at worst killing us and at best making us sick, all in the name of profit.

What struck me was the timing of the interview. In fact, Leslie Stahl outright said, that organic is expensive and that in these times it may not be possible for America to wake up, so to speak, to the organic, slow food, REVOLUTION that she helped to form in the United States. The reason I found this interesting is that the other day I read an article which regaled McDonald’s with praise for turning a 14% larger profit in the last quarter. For me, this was a telling statistic, and a very sad one.

In the current economic reality, jobs are being lost in the United States, so too are homes and the fabric of society is being tested. Yet, in this reality, while other companies are slashing jobs and finding ways to bolster their bottomline, McDonald’s is, on the other hand, reaping the profits of misery. At least that is the way that I see it.

You see, the economic reality is forcing people (though Americans have rarely needed a reason to eat fast food) to choose the easiest method for food intake. That method naturally being fast food.

I am guilty of eating McDonald’s every now and again. But since I have become acquainted fully with the organic and slow food movements I find myself eating it less and less. Now nothing more than a momentary guilty pleasure.

I loved the interview with Waters. I thought it was on the whole balanced and represented a much grander exposure for Waters. The one part I was especially fond of was when she was asked about the White House having an edible landscape. A garden. She spoke of the symbolism involved with installing such a feature. And I couldn’t agree more. Change you can believe in. If you know what I mean.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM

Slow Food (file under my Culinary Philosophy)

I have spoken numerous times on this blog and in person to anyone who will listen about the merits of “Slow food.” It is one of those things that can really change a life in a positive way. Slow food is, as you might imagine, the antithesis of Fast food. It is a repudiation of McDonald’s, Burger King and Arby’s, as example. It is founded on the belief that food is for enjoyment and nourishment, not merely to fill a stomach.

Katrina Heron wrote an interesting book on the subject entitled; “Slow Food.”

In the book she speaks about “Community Supported Agriculture” and lists many great examples of it in California. While reading it I became extremely motivated and fond of the idea of “CSA’s” and how I could put them to work in this country. One woman who started and runs Full Belly Farms, Judith Redmond said and I agree that; “The current industrial paradigm is failing, and people everywhere are beginning to understand that this system is an alternative, a real alternative.” And she is not just blowing hot air. Her farm produces more than 80 different crops and the “CSA” has more than 1000 members. The basic premise behind “CSA’s” is that it is not about money and instead about “relationship farming.” What a beautiful concept.

Another woman (and believe me the notion was not lost on me that it is women saying these things) who owns and operates Windborne Farm says that she started with the question; “How many people can one woman feed?” She came up with the current answer of about 100 through her dedication and hard work. Like my Mother, she is a believer in teaching simply by doing.

As I touched on in an earlier post, the current industrial model, has homogenized produce to the point of near extinction in relative terms of massive amounts of produce. I used the two examples of Tomatoes and Apples. But it goes far deeper than this.

A California “CSA” farmer under the name Pixie Growers (interesting story behind how they became Pixie Growers) asked the simple question; “Why don’t we see if we can work together rather than cannibalizing each other?” And so my mind started racing. And still is.

Another farmer from the Redwood Roots Farm states that the “Theoretical framework behind the CSA concept comes to life.” And I do belief that ultimately that is true and a paradigm that we must embrace.

So the question begs; How do we go slow?

The Slow Food Movement manifesto if you will gives the following ways to go slow;

Drink Unbottled Water
Learn regions and their food stories
Make things from scratch
Plant a kitchen garden
Buy Organic (I have a problem with this one which I will speak about in my next post)
Eat together
Avoid Genetically Modified Foods
Conserve, Compost and Recycle
Buy local
Bag lunch
Cook
Teach your children what you know
Eat Seasonal
MEET YOUR FARMERS

I capitalized the last one because Ontario is an incredible climate which grows massive amounts of food. I know you are all familiar (in Ontario) with the beautiful campaign; “Good things grow in Ontario.” Well maybe you didn’t know just how much of a breadbasket Ontario really is. If you go to http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/english/availability.html you can see what and when we grow.

Slowly but surely I have been developing my culinary philosophy and the idea of slow food is a major component of it. I can’t give you a detailed analysis of what that is just yet, but when I can you will be the first to know.

Dan Barber once said; “Most importantly, I'd say that in order to experience the pleasures of good food, leave the politics, leave the health issues and leave the ecological issues aside. Tasting good food is a pleasure that people will come back to. That's what this is: hedonism, a to z. And I think that's one angle that makes sense [in connection] to slow food. Let's look at this from a hedonistic, celebratory viewpoint and not a depressing one, and I think that has some legs for the future."

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM

Alice Waters, The Mother of an American Culinary Awakening (file under incredible role model)

Alice Waters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Waters ) is one of those people that makes you wonder how a visionary becomes a visionary. Yet while pondering how one becomes a visionary Alice revealed to me the qualities that I aspire to when it comes to my restaurant. Her culinary love affair began with a trip to Europe in her formative years. From that trip Alice’s love affair with food was charged with the force of ten atomic explosions and the birth of California Cuisine was the result. Cause and effect in its most delicious form. Alice’s Chez Panisse (http://www.chezpanisse.com/ ) is arguably the most important and influential restaurant in the United States and the result of her vision and approach is felt, seen, smelled and tasted in countless well appointed restaurant dining rooms and homes alike.

Reading Thomas McNamee’s “Alice Waters and Chez Panisse” I found myself thrilled. Enthralled really. By the clarity of her vision and the prowess of her execution. In the foreword R. W. Apple, Jr states; “Before Chez Panisse, even the grandest American restaurants relied on imported, often canned or frozen products; today, the Waters credo – fresh, local seasonal, and where possible organic ingredients – is followed by hundreds of farmers’ markets, thousands of restaurants, and millions of home cooks.” In the very next paragraph he tells the tale of Alice showing up at Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons for a meeting of the greatest chefs in the world with nothing more than a few Meyer lemons and proceeded to shock and awe the collected wisdom of the assembled chefs. I immediately admired her chutzpah. That took balls. Big balls. And she has them in spades.

McNamee’s tale takes us through the various stages of both Alice and Chez Panisse’s development. From the first moment that it opened its doors to the many successes and failures it has had over the years. If you can even call them failures. To my mind, Alice’s credo, her desire to make food that tasted like food, looked like food, smelled like food doomed Panisse to the status of non money making venture. BUT, and this is a big but, Alice KNEW, intrinsically, that if she stuck to her credo, money (the last of her concerns) would eventually follow. It is as I have always said, follow your passion and the rest will fall into place.

The success of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse is the story of dedication, truthfulness and integrity. It is the result of a vision maintained in spite of challenges and obstacles. It is also the story of a confluence of events and people at just the right time to make the right impact to reshape the culinary world. Of course I don’t need to explain to anyone here what Berkeley was like in the early 70’s but it should be obvious that it was the heartland of an American revival of sorts. It was a collection of hippies and student protestors. It was an assortment of societal “misfits” that had a purpose and a dream. And in that spirit Alice was able to attract like a tractor beam the right people to make her vision reality and Chez Panisse a success.

Alice’s spirit was the driver and Chez Panisse became the magnet to attract greatness. From those that designed special menus. To purveyors. To cooks with no experience. Chefs with massive experiences. Front of House staff. Everything in the universe conspired to make it a success. But also Alice’s unrelenting maintaining her original vision. NO MATTER THE COST! The result of that vision saw Alice develop lifelong relationships with a veritable who’s who of the United States but more importantly with children through her Chez Panisse Foundation (http://www.chezpanissefoundation.org/ ).

Rather than me blithering on about Alice, I think I would prefer to have you understand her from the way that she cooks;

“I usually stand at my kitchen table. I may pull a bunch of thyme from my pocket and lay it on the table; then I wander about the kitchen gathering up all the wonderfully fresh ingredients I can find. I look at each foodstuff carefully, examining it with a critical eye and concentrating in such a way that I begin to make associations… Sometimes I wander through the garden looking for something appealing, absorbing the bouquet of the earth and the scent of the fresh herbs. Sometimes I butterfly my way through cookbooks, quickly flipping the pages and absorbing a myriad of ideas about a particular food or concept.”

I think that this quote best characterizes Alice. What she does and how she does it. And as I said before it gives me something to aspire to. Alice was not taught how to cook. She cooked. Alice the mother of an American food revolution believes that slow food is good food and that it takes time.

I could go on for much longer about how important Alice is to the North American culinary esthetic but I think I would prefer to have you discover for yourself. I will however leave you with this quote from Alice;

“I’m completely dedicating this decade to public education…There are small things like writing a book and whatnot, but my immediate big hope is that we will have rolled out an organic lunch program in all seventeen schools in Berkeley. And that we will have integrated curriculums of the grammar schools and the middle schools and the high schools with the lunch program, and that ten thousand kids will be eating lunch as part of the academic day. And that we will be supporting any number of farmers and ranches and dairies that are within a couple hours of the school district. And that we will have documented everything that has gone on. And that children will have actually changed their eating habits, and that we will have stemmed the tide of obesity in Berkeley. That we will have our first graduates out, and it will be so compelling and so delicious that the state of California will be contemplating a statewide program, and that they will be ready to take over the funding of the Berkeley program. For Slow Food, my hope is that in ten years it will really be a vibrant force for change in every country in the world.”

This is why Alice Waters should be a household name. Vision. Passion. Execution and Deliciousness.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM