American Masters (1985–…): Season 17, Episode 4 - Alice Waters and Her Delicious Revolution - full transcript

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- Alice, in her quest,

has changed the world,
in an extraordinary way.

I remember being with Alice
in an airplane,

flying back from San Diego
and Chino Ranch,

and Alice had a flat
of strawberries on her lap

at a time when
the strawberries in America

were like Styrofoam.

They were big and hard and,
when you cut them open,

they were white in the middle

and they had
no fragrance at all.

And Alice had strawberries



which were red to the core
and amazingly fragrant.

And, as we sat on the plane,
the smell of these berries

started drifting
through the airplane.

And, one by one,
people came up to Alice

and started begging
for her strawberries.

And Alice is giving
these strawberries away

and watching dessert
at the restaurant vanish.

She turned to me and said,

"You know, we're really
on to something here.

If you give people
a great strawberry,

they understand
how different it is.

And we've gotta bring
this flavor back to America."

And that's what
her restaurant did.

- Well, I'm just convinced that



having this understanding
about food

will change the way
we live in this world.

And I'm really

on a mission to...

To engage people in this way.

♪♪

♪♪

- "A delicious revolution":
it's a wonderful phrase.

And I think it speaks
to the fact that,

in the realm of food,

doing the right thing
is pleasurable.

And that caring about food

and knowing where it comes from
has these very positive

environmental
and social ramifications.

So you can sort of have
your cake and eat it, too.

- There are chefs
in every corner of the globe

who have said to me,
"Do you know Alice Waters?"

There is no more influential
person in American food.

♪♪

- How are we supposed
to live our lives?

How should we eat?

How do the choices we make
about food

affect our fellow humans
and the land that we live on?

I think food just opens
your senses and opens your mind.

And it's an activity that
we do every day

and it can really
enrich your life,

your everyday life.

I thought I would make
a confit of tomatoes.

It's just tomatoes,
garlic, basil,

olive oil, salt, and pepper.

And the idea is that you can use
the very, very ripe...

Overripe tomatoes to make it.

♪♪

With the olive oil

and the garlic and the basil
in the bottom,

you cook them very slowly for
about an hour and a quarter.

You can use it as a tomato sauce
for just about anything.

I use it for a pasta sauce.

It has just this aroma,

fragrance, that comes
from the long cooking.

I think, when you eat
the same thing every day,

it sort of dulls your senses.

And so when something
really good comes along,

you miss it.

And another experience
about food

is changing as the seasons
are changing,

and you're experiencing

the whole range
of different foods

and tastes out there
in the world

that you have a very different
experience in your life.

And it opens you up to seeing

all kinds of things
in a different way.

That sort of hamburger
experience is so narrow

and it just sort of narrows
your thinking, in all ways.

It's not just about food.

It's about everything.

- Alice Waters
has achieved a great deal.

She went from being
a Montessori teacher

to being one of the most
unlikely restaurateurs

in the history of the world.

No training,

no administrative skills
that anybody knew about,

funny-lookin' clothes.

Shy, in a way,

and, yet, incredibly forceful,
when you get down to it.

- She was very interesting
when I first met her.

She was really with this group

who were rebellion
at the University of California

and she believed passionately,

just like, you know,
her feelings about food.

She had a passion for this.

And I don't think
she ever really thought

of Chez Panisse as a restaurant.

What she was really searching
for was not a restaurant,

but a place where she could
feed this group of rebels.

♪♪

- Alice

came out of the movement.

The University of California,
of course, in the '60s,

was the center
of the antiwar movement

and other movements
allied with it.

And Chez Panisse began

as a kind of expression of that.

- There was a very
interesting moment

where food and
politics intersected,

and it happened at Berkeley,
by and large.

It happened some
other places, too.

But we seldom think
about it this way,

but the food revolution,

which is to say,
the rise of organic food

and also the rise of a,
you know,

distinctly American cuisine
that we've seen

in the last 30 years,
was a '60s movement.

It was part
and parcel of feminism,

of antiwar movement,
of environmentalism,

and organic food was...

It was called a countercuisine.

There was a counterculture
and there should be

a countercuisine to go with it.

- I didn't have any real vision

about what the restaurant
would be.

I just wanted a place to eat
and to eat with my friends.

And I thought it could be
a kind of social place

for people who lived
in North Berkeley.

I never imagined...

Never imagined
that it was going to be

anything other than that.

- When Alice opened Chez Panisse,
I think she thought that

she's traveled in France
and she would come home

and she would be able
to cook real French food here.

And had the same disappointment
that all of us

who were cooking at home had,

which was you couldn't
make that food.

And the reason that you couldn't
was because it was...

It depended on the products.

- Really,

a whole new world opened up
when I went to France.

♪♪

- Deux.

- Merci.

It was great, walking
through the markets,

the open markets, and seeing
all the beautiful food

and fruits and the vegetables
and smelling it

and there was something
that caught my attention.

I had an awakening.

I, uh...

I think I had some
sensual pleasures

out in the vegetable garden
when I was a child and,

my family, well,
they always had a garden.

My mother was very aware of
nature and knew all the flowers

and I was brought into that
experience when I was young,

but it wasn't
until I went to France

that my eyes were opened.

- The idea of starting
with really great products,

of that kind of innovation
that Alice had,

that simplicity, that is all
very much Alice's legacy.

- That Roman squash.

- That'll be gone, pretty much.

- The cooks gather
together each morning

and try to decide
how best to use

the fruits and vegetables

that arrived from the farms
that morning.

- Well, like a 10-pound.
Beautiful okra...

It's like purple and green.

It's really like pristine.

- The most important job
in the restaurant, I think,

is finding these ingredients
and making a connection

with the farmers
and with the ranchers.

And... knowing how
to work with them

and how to help them
to understand

what we need to use and... and...

And make that a really...
A partnership that we have.

Chez Panisse is
in the middle of Berkeley,

uh, in a city, and, uh,
we can't have

that really idyllic arrangement

of a farm right outside
the front door.

Now, we have a network
of 75 different people

that we buy things from.

And some of them have
just one tree, of peaches.

And some bring in
all the salads every day.

Like Bob Cannard.

- When I talk about
a domestic garden,

you need a little bit
of a wide range of things.

And not really
a crop-oriented farm,

but a big, home garden.

Many different kinds of squashes

and a handful of different
varieties of onions

and a bunch of different herbs

and half a dozen different
kinds of salad greens

and maybe a few root vegetables.

And that's a domestic home
garden, like a kitchen garden.

- We decided to try
to connect with the farmers

who were actually growing
some of the fruits

and vegetables that we wanted
to have at the restaurant.

If we could suggest varieties
that were very tasty,

we could have a kind of
steady supply of things

coming into the restaurant

from a whole number
of different people.

Because we have such beautiful
vegetables for each season,

we don't have to serve
produce out of season.

- Well, we communicate
all the time

and I prepare availability
lists for them

and they kind of dream up
things that they think

I might be able to get for 'em.

But every picking day,
an order comes in

and gets it off
the answering machine

and, and, you know,
it goes from there.

- Hey, Bob.
This is Russ at the restaurant

with the order for Thursday.

Let's see.

Two boxes curly cress.

Three watercress.

Six mixed lettuce,
if you have it.

- And I'll augment it
a little bit

and maybe I don't have something
that they want,

or enough of something,
and so I'll jockey

back and forth
with them a few calls, maybe.

- Two green chard.

All right, hope you're
doing well. Bye.

The raspberry that I picked

for Chez Panisse,
it was picked this morning;

it'll be used this evening.

If it's not used this evening,

well, they may reduce it
to a sauce or make an ice cream

or something like that
out of it tomorrow.

But it won't be
a full little raspberry

for fresh table use tomorrow.

It's for tonight.

♪♪

- A lot of what being a good
chef is, is choice,

is saying, "This is the week
to serve these cherries

and they're really perfect now
and he...

I can't improve on this.

So here's a bowl of cherries."

So I think
it's more than aesthetic.

I think it's tied to the whole
ethic of the restaurant,

which is to break down the walls

between the producers
and the consumers of food.

♪♪

- Before the organic movement
was really important,

I watched Alice
have these arguments

with people who thought,

"Oh, it's, you know,
you can't do that."

And Alice said, "Yes, you can.

You need to.
It's important."

That's very much
in the air today.

It wasn't in the late '70s
and early '80s.

Alice's model
for running a restaurant

is to think of the restaurant
as part of its community

and to think of what
what you eat means,

to the entire community
and to the world.

And to think of how you behave,
as a person and as a business,

as having an impact
on the world.

- There's a politics in that.

I mean, it's a very subtle,
quiet politics,

but it is politics
and it has an impact.

You can follow it
down this food chain

back to the land.

And it begins with knowing
the names of what you're eating

and having a sense
of its particular identity.

- They're from a...
They're like a Lebanese kind.

- And I have two cherry tomato;
one red, one yellow.

- Well, you've gotten better with
the cherry tomatoes, for sure.

- I think it's hard for people
who aren't a bit older

to remember a time when,
on an American menu,

you didn't say, um, um,

Michigan morel
or Oregon mussels,

or anything like that.

If you wanted an extra buck
or two on the entree,

you said "imported."

- So you want to...
You're gonna go in?

- Yeah, I'm gonna bring them in
and then we'll fix them all up.

- Okay.

- I think to the extent
you can make people realize

they're not just eating
lettuce or cherries,

they begin to think
in terms of biodiversity.

I mean, it's an abstract word
for what we're describing,

but, you know,
there's a direct relation

between biodiversity on a plate.

A lot of different things,
specific varieties...

Maybe unusual varieties,
ones that are not in commerce...

And they're being biodiversity
on the farm and in nature.

And always, you're reminded,
I think, of a process.

- You know, too, but this was
very... I just bought that.

They have no...
- I'll take either one.

- Okay.

- But I think if they have
the same ones

as yesterday, we'll take it.
- Uh-huh.

- What Alice has done
is elevated the farmer

from this faceless entity
that just produces

these commodities
to someone that has a face.

Alice has given farmers a face
by teaching the public

the story about food

and understanding
that we celebrate food,

not just from the chef's art,
but also from the farmer's art.

- Peaches are our favorite
dessert at the restaurant.

We often make a galette,
which is a kind of tart.

♪♪

The key to making the dough
is not to blend it too much.

Those little piece of butter
make it so flaky.

You can't duplicate
the taste of a perfect peach.

When they're ripe, the less you
do with them, the better.

We put a little butter
and almond paste on the crust,

and then the peaches.

♪♪

I love a galette
because it looks so handmade

and that's perfect to me.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Peaches are really only good

during the hottest months
of the summer.

So we serve them
from the end of July

just until the end of September.

For me, there's nothing
like a perfect peach.

♪♪

I think there's something
really special

and important about knowing
that you can only have a peach

for a very brief
moment each year.

♪♪

- Oh!

- Well, as a small farmer,
I just feel like she's...

She's our patron saint.

She's one of the few people out
there who's really popularized,

you know, fresh,
locally grown food

and brought out
the importance of it

and made it
really understandable

to a lot of people.
Um...

And, you know,
going to her restaurant,

I think is, for me,
like going to church.

It's, you know, it's the high
temple of locally grown,

fresh, really well-done food.

- Well.
Look at this color.

Amazing.

And some mint.

- One of the great insights
of the organic movement

was that the consumer
is a creator,

not just a consumer.

That we make the world
with our buying decisions.

So that if we choose
to buy organic

and pay that price premium,
we are supporting

a whole chain of events
that unfolds from that.

That decision to buy that
organic lettuce

instead of that
conventional lettuce,

that ramifies all the way
back to the farm

and it supports a certain
kind of agriculture,

and that supports
a certain kind of environment.

- Much of our policy
is food-based.

Much of why we do what we do
is because of food.

So it's not just cultural,
it's... it's

enormously political.

And that is part
of Alice's message,

is that we need
to think about that.

You know, food subsidies,
petroleum subsidies.

Much of why we go to war
can be seen as,

you know, based on food.

And has been,
throughout human history.

- Aren't they beautiful
on the... vine?

They just, I think, express

something about this season,

this moment in time.

And they come in all
these beautiful colors.

When they're really good,
they're irresistible.

I'm always looking for ones
in the market that have that...

That little top on,

that you just know that that's
been picked that morning,

when it's like that.

♪♪

♪♪

- So we got two tomatoes
here, okay?

This is the commercial
variety that is available

at any number of agro-business
outlets near you.

This is a organic tomato grown
with love and compost.

If I am casting

a Chekhov play or a Greek
tragedy, or Shakespeare,

I can hire Sylvester Stallone,
to give me

a really pumped-up
experience, uh,

that's loud and that's strong.

But I can guarantee you
you will not be moved.

His gift is to be present

while things
are blown up around him.

If I'm hiring an actor

and, when you first look
at them, you don't...

You're not impressed,

but, two hours into the piece,

you find yourself
unexpectedly overwhelmed

and moved and...

crying,
without even noticing it,

because what that person's
carrying with them

is so real.

♪♪

- As agriculture is changing,
you're getting

a greater division
between big and small,

capital-/technologically
intensive,

versus labor-
and management-intensive.

Conventional versus organic.

It's creating a two-tier system.

One system is based on industry,
business, economics.

The other system,
which I like to think I'm in,

is based at meaning, story,
the art of what we're doing.

♪♪

This fruit is just perfect,

where it has this
amber glow to it.

And you could see
much more vividly

the signature of the leaf.

'Cause here you see
a blush coming in

and, if you lift
the leaves gently,

you could see where the leaves
have left their mark on this.

- Last year when we ranked
the 50 best restaurants

in the United States,
it was unanimous here at Gourmet

that Chez Panisse
was the best restaurant.

♪♪

- What's made Chez Panisse kind
of a pace-setting restaurant

is not simply
how good the food is,

but what the food is.

- Until Alice came on the scene,
fine dining in America

was basically these
snooty French chefs

in their tall, white hats.

- And, you know,
with a power maitre d',

what we call the wall...

Unless you drop money
on the wall,

you can't get in
or you can't get your tables.

- Now, I remember going
to one of them.

It was the most pretentious
place I'd ever been.

- Waiters who would look
down their nose

and, when you ordered,
they would say,

"Oh, very good choice."

And everybody in America
was terrified

of going out to eat,
of doing the wrong thing.

♪♪

♪♪

- French cuisine was disserviced

by those type of restaurant
and the great chefs

and this is what became,
for most American,

identified with real
French cuisine

when, in fact, the cuisine
that Alice Waters does

is much more French.

- What I see in Alice,
that puts her pretty separate

from most anyone
I know that cooks,

and that is that she...

She's very careful not to

exceed in spicing things.

There's a delicate edge
to all of her food.

- I think of her as someone
who almost conceptualizes

what ought to be cooked

in a restaurant
and eaten in a restaurant.

And the we way it ought to be
and the tone of it.

- Alice's food
is just what it is

and she doesn't give it

all kinds of bows
and ribbons and stars.

♪♪

♪♪

- Well, I don't think
of myself as a chef.

I think, uh, I think
of myself as really, um...

Uh,

more like a home cook.

I'm a... I think I'm a good
taster and a good critic.

- The chef entail that you're
in charge of a group of people,

that you order them
and you structure the cuisine,

telling, "I want this this way,
I want that this way,

I want the fish to be
cooked this way.

I don't want to use
those ever again.

I want to use that.
I want that presentation,

want it very simple
or complicated, or whatever."

This is what a chef is.
That is this one.

Chef, in French, means "chief."

You know, in charge.

So she is a chef,
whether she like it or not,

when she run a restaurant.

- The truth is that, once
she'd opened the restaurant,

almost from the beginning,
Alice wasn't the only cook.

If all she was gonna
do was indulge herself

by being in the kitchen
all the time,

the restaurant
wasn't gonna survive.

She had created a community

and it was her obligation
to keep it going.

- People think that I cook
at the restaurant every night,

but I really haven't cooked
at the restaurant for...

19 years,
since my daughter was born.

So it's an illusion
that I am in the kitchen.

There are a lot of

extraordinary cooks
who collaborate in that kitchen.

- Essentially what Alice does is

she facilitates
other people's talent.

She is sort of the maestro
pulling the strings.

- I really believe that people

like to be asked
to do something,

you know, that they
couldn't do on their own.

It's like an improvisation.

That you come together
and you talk about the menu

and you look at the ingredients

and you see who has
the ability to...

Desire, to cook whatever it is.

And if you have a lot of people
engaged in that project

who are sort of specialists,

then it...
It becomes very exciting.

I mean, you just...
All the little piece

that comes together

like a production,
you know, a play.

- You know, every once in
a while, you know, in theater,

I have a moment of perfection,

you know, that's somewhere
in the middle of the third act,

you know, for that
second performance

that we achieved two years ago.

Alice is serving hundreds
of meals every day,

and they're all at that level.

- I'm gonna do it in two courses.

Where I thought we would do it
is the broth with crouton in it,

and then the fish with a little
bit of broth and the rouille.

- Well, that's served
in the broth in the first...

In the second course?
- Yeah.

- I'm always there as the critic
and giving them feedback.

I think I can really help
in that way.

I can help get them
to even another place.

Is it raspberry jam?

- Raspberry coulis.

It has a little bit
of the Muscat Grappa in it.

First one had a nougat mousse.

It's just right.
I think this piece is

a little bit soft,
'cause it's been sitting.

- Where the last minute
is when you're tasting a dish.

That's the time when you can
really fine-tune it,

and it's so important.

I think it's probably
the most important part

of the...
The creation of the dish,

is that... that...
Just that little bit of...

Of salt or a little bit
of lemon juice

or the moving of things
on a plate.

It's... It's sweet.

And it is kind of nougat.

- After all.
- That's right.

- How about add a little bit of

our infamous...
- Peel.

- Peel would do on it.

I hate to say it but...
- I feel that there's

so much in it, though.
- But just... It might...

- You still...
- It might go a nice way...

I think, when we talk
about the food,

when we really analyze it
as a group,

you can get to a place

that's greater
than the sum of the parts.

I think that peel makes
every dessert better.

See, I like it.

- I like the fresh...
- I really like that.

It makes all
the difference for me.

- Alice has very clear taste.

I could look at any dish

that Alice had made
and know that it was Alice.

And you know it, you see it,
you can taste it.

All good cooks have
an identifiable style.

I mean, Alice's is very strong.
If she fries an egg for you,

it's not like
anybody else's egg.

I mean, I watched her.
I stayed with her once

and she got up in the morning
and fried me an egg,

and it was a completely
different egg

than I've ever had in the past.

I was sort of shocked 'cause it
was so completely different

than how I would fry an egg.

It was great, but it was

"Oh, my God.
It's an Alice egg."

- I'm making a torpedo red-onion
vinaigrette for the salad.

I'm going to make
a bed of lettuces

with sliced tomatoes on top.

And then the sauce will be made
with a dice of red onions,

vinegar, salt, pepper,
and olive oil.

- I think of lettuce
as really sort of

the beginning
of Alice's revolution.

When I first knew her,
lettuce was the thing.

She personally always washed
all the lettuce at Chez Panisse.

And it was the first thing she
did, was start finding people

all around Berkeley to start
growing her little lettuces.

When Alice was first
serving mesclun salad,

nobody knew what it was

and now it's every supermarket
has a mesclun mix.

I can just see her
picking through lettuces.

It's the sort of
Alice dish, is salad.

- Well, one of my mentors
is Lulu Peyraud,

who owns Domaine Tempier winery
and Bandol in France,

and Lulu is a great cook.
Just a great cook.

She's a natural cook.

She just knows what
to put in and...

And it's very simple
kind of cooking,

but it's with an aesthetic
that she has.

It appears that she
never makes an effort.

She's just... it just happens.

Lulu makes the quintessential
bouillabaisse.

Something about that big pot
over the vine branches.

You know, out there
in the hot sun,

cooking that fish stew.

Intoxicating.

Well, a bouillabaisse
is really a fisherman's stew.

It's the fish that came out
of the Mediterranean,

the rockfish that came
out of the Mediterranean,

cooked with... garlic and onions
and fennel, tomatoes.

A little bit of saffron,
olive oil.

And brought to a boil.

And so the flavors
come together.

It's something that we've been
cooking at the restaurant

in the fireplace,

and we cook it for our
special occasions,

for birthdays and...

And, uh, when the shellfish
is really good.

♪♪

Oh, it smells fantastic.

- Good? Yeah, I know.
- Doesn't it?

- I was joking with Jerome about

throwing a piece of charcoal
into our bouillabaisse

if it wasn't smoky enough,
'cause I love that taste.

I love that... that...
The fire in the pot.

Sometimes, you know,
at Domaine Tempier,

they throw a little piece
of charcoal in it.

- Well, shall we try it?

I don't know. They do that.

- They do.
- We'll try the broth.

If it's not smoky enough, do it.

- Okay, we just throw one in.

♪♪

- What do you think?

- That's tasty.

- I think so.

♪♪

- Wouldn't change a thing.

- Unh-unh.
I think it's pretty fabulous.

- Her deepest feeling, I think,
is that if she could just

find the right dish
to feed every person on Earth,

if she could get the right
flavor in your mouth,

you would suddenly
understand that,

if we could make food better

and better-grown
and more sustainable,

we would all care
more each other

and the world would be
a better place.

- Cooking is giving, you know?

And it's the pure...

Maybe the purest
expression of love.

I mean, in the sense that you
always cook for the other.

- Try it before, but it must
have a beautiful flavor,

especially mashed lemon.

- Well, cooking
and feeding people

is a form
of communication for me.

It's the way I... the way I talk.

Just give 'em
a little something to eat.

This is my favorite thing to do,

is to come to somebody else's
garden to pick vegetables.

This is the way people
have been cooking

since the beginning of time.

They've been picking
what's locally available;

they've been cooking it simply,

eating it with their
family and friends.

It bring you completely
into the whole experience

of food that is irresistible.

I get ideas and I think,

"Well, maybe we'll make a soup
with these green beans,"

or, "Maybe we'll have
the salad."

My whole plan begins
to take shape.

A-At Chez Panisse,
it used to be a test

for the new cooks
at the restaurant.

Um, they had to pound the pesto
by hand for 100 people.

And if they could stay focused
and if they could pound it,

then they had a job.

They had a tryout for a job.

A pesto is a mixture
of garlic and basil

and it's put into a soup,
a vegetable soup.

There is a recipe for a pesto.

There are many, many,
many recipes for pesto.

They all seem to have
pine nuts and basil

and garlic and Parmesan in them.

But all of these are
vari-variables.

Sometimes the basil
is very spicy.

When it gets hot in the summer,
the basil grows very quickly

and it's got
a real strong flavor

and so you use less of it.

Sometimes, you cut it
with a little parsley.

This is one vegetable soup.

It's cooked with a stock
and you cook it for 2 hours.

So all the vegetables
sort of melt together.

I wanted to do something
with what was in the garden

and I wanted to cook something

that was very simple,
very aromatic,

and easy to serve
to a big group of people.

Having an experience
around the table

engages our senses,
opens them up.

We're brought
into the experience

of communicating
with each other around the table

in this delicious way.

A little bit of that
on the top of each bowl, okay?

And I'm gonna pass it,
and you pass it around.

- Beautiful. How far around

should we go?
- All the way around.

- We're born uncivilized
and we remain that way,

if we don't have an atmosphere

that repetitively tells us
that we need to interact,

we need to recognize that
the other person feels

just as we do.

The table is the ideal metaphor
for this experience.

It is everything...

Sharing food regularly
all the time

with others that you share
your life with.

- I think that,
to sit down with friends,

have a good meal, a glass
or two of wine, and talk

is one of the great

human experiences.
- Tiny, white navy bean.

I mean, that's the only kind
of bean we could get.

- And so when you get a product

that actually comes
from a friend, you know,

and you get the bean
and then you grow it,

you just feel so responsible

for something great
coming into this world.

- Like we're starting
to learn from...

- It's the story of Chez Panisse.

I mean, in 30 years, uh,

things have changed entirely.

At the beginning,
we couldn't find anything.

And then we started to ask
for it and look for it and...

- She's really taken off
in a different direction

than when I was little.

She's much more involved
socially and with education

and in a way that
she wasn't when...

When she was just working
at the restaurant.

I always used to consider her
"crusade" to be her avocation.

You know, that she was
still the restaurateur

and she was still, you know,
owner of Chez Panisse,

and that was her title,
and then that she had

this avocation that she was
also dedicated to.

And I just...
I always used to tell people

that she loved being
at Chez Panisse and doing that,

but she was passionate about
being at the Edible Schoolyard.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

- There was a lot of land
the school had

that was basically just
turned over

and she thought, "We should
have a garden there.

And these kids could be
growing food

and learning how to cook it."

So she contacted the principal,
who was then Mr. Smith,

and told him her idea.

And so this is Alice and,
thanks to Alice,

that's why we have our garden
and our kitchen now.

So Alice is here today.

Thank you, Alice.

- Thank you, guys.

I think, if you're talking
about a person

who is a world-famous chef,

someone who's this influential
in the food world,

to really take so much
of her energy

and divert it into a program
like this is pretty odd.

But, when you get to know
Alice, at this point,

I don't even really think
of her in that capacity.

To me, she is
a really hard-working...

Incredibly hard-working...
Visionary.

Somebody who has these
quite brave ideas

and just doesn't give up.

- Well, I just wanted to see

what the kids
were eating here at camp.

I wanted to see what they had
for lunch, what was left over.

I always did that
at the restaurant.

It's just a little bit difficult

to see what's down on the bottom
unless you get in.

Well.

Little Kit Kats.

Seeing how badly kids eat today
made me realize

that we had to do
something about it.

This is really where the idea
for the Edible Schoolyard began.

Doritos, McDonald's.

It's not shocking to me
anymore to find Coke cans

and candy-bar wrappers
after breakfast.

It's just what's happening
in the... at school.

Kids either don't eat
or they eat junk food.

- Alice has good reason
to be worried

about what kids in America
are eating today.

Uh, there is an extraordinary
obesity epidemic

among American children
and, right now,

about 25% of American children
are overweight or obese.

So what kids are eating

is of incredible importance
to their health

and to our future
healthcare costs.

- We already take responsibility
for their bodies at school.

We teach them
physical education.

We teach them sex education.

Why aren't we teaching them
nutritional education?

Because we didn't
think they needed it.

But now we know,
we're learning, that they do.

And, um,

and Alice was there,
you know, early.

I mean, you know, she's ready
with this curriculum.

- These little gem
lettuces are lovely,

but they also kind of collect
some of the dirt.

When they get watered,

sometimes the dirt
sort of splashes down in

and it all settles
to the bottom.

And somebody who's
kind of in a hurry

might just sort of run it
under the water

and then say,
"Okay, I cleaned it."

But somebody who is meticulous

is going to kind of peel it,
leaf by leaf.

Do you guys ever do that
where you have a daisy,

and you do that "He loves me;

he loves me not,"
one at a time like that?

It's kind of like that, okay?

I just see what's happened
at the Edible Schoolyard

and they...
They come to that table

and they behave differently.

They're quiet when people
are talking, they...

They're open in a way that I...

That some of them never are.

Uh, they like to do things
that, uh,

we would consider
to be hard work.

- We need rocks. We need,

I don't know,
15 wheelbarrows of rocks?

- Where am I taking them?
- You need more?

- I'll take 'em.
- In this garden,

what we really aim
to do is to make it a place

that is theirs so they are part
of the decision-making process,

so that they are a part
of what is happening,

a part of the whole
collective project.

And, as you look around,
it's not a garden

that fits any sort of standard
garden design formats,

but it's a garden
with tremendous energy

and it comes from the fact
that, you know,

900 kids a year
are working out here.

- We work in a school district
that is so diverse,

that we have so many
different backgrounds:

22 different languages spoken,

socioeconomic range from A to Z,

and we get kids
who very privileged,

kids who are very
underprivileged,

and I think that teaching them

that your senses are really
the great equalizer,

in terms of the key
to a beautiful life,

a really fulfilling life,
are really in your senses,

and that's available to anybody.

- All right,
we're finding potatoes.

I feel lucky.

I've been digging here for
about... oh, wait, never mind.

- You're like
"Oh, wait, never mind."

- The value of the
Edible Schoolyard Project

is making kids
aware of where food comes from.

In our suburban
and urban society,

most children,
and even most adults,

are completely disconnected
from agricultural production,

have no idea where their food
comes from, how it's being made.

- It's a task that has
a very clear course:

the beginning, middle, end.

A very fulfilling end,

especially for kids
who are hungry.

And I mean physically hungry,
too, not just emotionally

and intellectually hungry,
but physically hungry.

For them to come in

and understand that
it's not hard

to make something wonderful

and that feeling of sharing it
with other people is...

It's almost like you
can see the light coming on

in their head, because just
that simple exchange

when you're working
with somebody across the table

and they're picking the leaves
off the parsley

and giving them to you
and you're chopping them up

and you have this relationship

that you don't have
in the hallway in school,

you don't have it when
you're working on your computer,

when you're playing
your videogame.

But when you are working
on the same thing,

and then you know
that you're gonna be sitting

and eating together,
all of the sudden,

you look at that person
in a different way

and you think, "I'm your friend.

I like you."

- Alice has devoted her life
to these issues

and most people never stop
to think about them.

And so the awareness that she
has and the lack of awareness

that most people have
about their food

and its consequences
isn't always easy to deal with.

Now, to talk about dinner, too,

- is Alice Waters,
who is the owner

of Chez Panisse Restaurant
in Berkeley, California.

She sort of is the one
who set a standard

for a kind of cuisine
that came from California

and just became what
everybody wanted

and she has been the person
who connected the dots,

making us understand
that where food comes from

has a lot to do
with how it finally presents.

- For me, that's really
the big question, is

"Where does our food come from

and what are the consequences

of the decisions that we make
about what we eat every day?"

I really want to cook
with what's alive

and right for the moment
and I really feel like

I-I-I'm just so dependent

on that farmers' market
and on... on these farmers.

- What she's asking us
to do is cook again.

I think what we have to think
is "How can we do that?"

I mean, maybe it doesn't
happen in the old way.

I mean, she doesn't have
the entire answer.

I mean, maybe what we have to do
is say, "Yes, you're right,

we have to learn to cook;

we have to teach children
about food,

we have to go back to the earth

and think about new ways
to apply this."

- I'm really interested
in the school art

- We're going to.
That's our plan, is to do it

in the whole school.
- Of projects...

I was thinking of doing
my field work down there.

- I think she's
absolutely committed.

I mean, I've never seen someone
quite that committed,

who acts so quickly
on new information

and what...
What she thinks is right.

And, you know,
her menu is this...

Is this tool, you know,
and, on the one side,

it's looking toward the consumer

and keeping them interested
and stimulated and delighted,

and, on the other side,
it's looking toward

American agriculture
and setting an example

because her decisions,
whether she's gonna have

grass-fed beef on her menu
or not, ramifies.

I mean, it's... that...
Her menu is very influential.

- The onions on a long strip.

- I think on a lot of fronts,

certainly including chefs
whom she's trained,

who are all
over this country now,

she's had an impact
on eating habits

in the United States,
which is decisive.

♪♪

- I'm hoping that we can
come to a time where...

Where everything
that we have on the table

is something that's wholesome
and pure and delicious.

♪♪

- Oh, I think she's made
a huge dent in her dreams.

She doesn't think
about obstacles.

What she does is go
to the conclusion

and then she'll work it
out from there.

- She wants you
to trust yourself.

She wants you to know

that the good thing is out there

and, if you've had it once,
you can have it again

and that it's worth
searching for.

- This isn't hard.

This is not a hard job,
to be part of this revolution.

And it's a revolution because

it is a different way
of thinking about the world.

You're... You're caring
about the future;

you're caring about
the world for our kids

and you're trying
to take care of it

and you're supporting the people
who are taking care of the land

and there's a whole
set of values

that are part of that thinking.

This isn't hard.

It's a delicious thing to do.

And revolutionary.

Every year, we celebrate
the birthday of the restaurant.

For the 30th, we had
a very big celebration

with 600 people coming together

at the University of California.

It felt like the most
appropriate place

because this is
where it all began for me.

It was really a perfect day.

♪♪

- Well, there we are
on a beautiful, sunlit day,

under an arbor of trees.

Long, trestled...
Very long, trestled tables.

- ♪ Chez Parnisse ♪
- A hilarious

- ♪ Chez Parnisse ♪
- musical

- ♪ Chez Parnisse ♪

- interlude
by Michael Tilson Thomas,

the music director of the
San Francisco Symphony.

A... an o... kind of
mock ode to Alice...

- ♪ We refine obscure old coot ♪

♪ Into ecstatic soup ♪

♪ We won't serve a toothpick ♪

♪ If it's not orga-a-nic ♪

♪ Chez Panisse ♪

- Fire is burning away,
with joints of meat on them.

Cauldron of fish soup,

great, copper cauldron
of fish soup.

- ♪ Chez Panisse ♪

♪ On our guard ♪

♪ to redeem
each virgin ta-a-ste bud ♪

- A mosaic.

A rainbow of types of people.

It was really the foodie
reunion of the decade.

Writers, cooks,

and lots of friends of Alice...
And her parents.

That was one of the great treats
for me, was meeting her parents.

- ♪ And if you please ♪

♪ Will never cease! ♪

♪ Chez Panisse ♪

♪ Chez Pani...

♪ ...sse ♪

♪♪