Alice Waters and Chez Panisse | 
|  | | | Title: | Alice Waters and Chez Panisse | | Author: | Thomas McNamee | | Publisher: | Penguin (Non-Classics) | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 26 February, 2008 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0143113089 / 9780143113089 | | List Price: | $15.00 | | You Save: | $4.80 | | Amazon Price: | $10.20 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
The first authorized biography of “the mother of American cooking” (The New York Times)
This adventurous book charts the origins of the local “market cooking” culture that we all savor today. When Francophile Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1971, few Americans were familiar with goat cheese, cappuccino, or mesclun. But it wasn’t long before Waters and her motley coterie of dreamers inspired a new culinary standard incorporating ethics, politics, and the conviction that the best-grown food is also the tastiest. Based on unprecedented access to Waters and her inner circle, this is a truly delicious rags-to-riches saga.
Amazon.com
You can't tell the story of Chez Panisse, Berkeley's famed restaurant, without relating that of its diminutive founder, proprietor, and sometime chef, Alice Waters. This is what Thomas McNamee does most handily in his Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, a chronicle that begins with the seat-of-the-pants opening night of the "counterculture" venture in 1971, and ends 35 years later with Waters's restaurant an American institution--one credited with birthing California Cuisine, a style devoted to simplicity, freshness and seasonality. The book also limns, with tasty gossip, the ever-evolving Chez Panisse family, including the cook-artisans uniquely responsible for dish creation; follows the attempts, mostly failed, to put the restaurant on sound financial footing; shows how dishes and menus get made; and of course pursues Waters as she broadens her commitment to "virtuous agriculture" by establishing ventures like The Edible Schoolyard and The Yale Sustainable Food Project. The success of Chez Panisse--Gourmet magazine named it the best American restaurant in 2002--has everything to do with Waters, yet she remains an elusive protagonist. Sophisticated yet naive, professional and amateur, hard-driving but emotionally blurry, she invites reader interest but doesn't always satisfy it, as least as presented here. If McNamee cannot quite bring her to life, and if his tale lacks an insider's full conversance with his subject, he still engages readers in the considerable drama of people finding their way--blunderingly, with talented intent--to something new. With menus, narrated recipes, and photographs throughout, the book is vital reading for anyone interested in food, period. --Arthur Boehm
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Customer Reviews:
• Fascinating... 22 February, 2008
...book about a woman and her restaurant - constantly on the verge of going broke in the early days but went on to become the most influential and inspirational person in the American restaurant business. A must for all foodies (although Alice doesn't like the word!)
- Reviewed by customer ID: A6PTA1R8A24JE
• A Great Short Story, But Long On The Read 12 May, 2008
I just finished the book and although I was engaged in the story the first half of the book, the 2nd half really dragged. Maybe if you have had the great pleasure to dine at Alice's restaurant, perhaps the story would have kept your attention better than mine. It's interesting to learn about the evolution of fine dining in this country and the recent movement for slow food. Alice Waters is a hero for her work way beyond the walls of her restaurant. However, the writing was inconsistent.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1ZUFIAR4KJPSG
• Interesting But Tedious 23 August, 2008
The author explores an important chapter in American culinary history and examines a unique contributor to that history. Once I fought my way through the book, I learned a few things:
1.)the food world has always been full of adventurous and idiosyncratic people and Ms. Waters is no exception.
2.)while her contribution and commitment to evolving the national palate is significant, it is wildly overstated. I am reminded of Jacques Pepin's reaction in his autobiography of their first meeting and listening to her overly serious discourse on her food: what's the big deal?
3.)her single minded drive is typical of all zealots- they are surrounded by acolytes and squish like bugs many of those who they have used, typically by having others do the dirty work. Her exploitation of her ex husband for breeding was notably offensive.
Despite all, Mr. McNamee would have rated 4 stars were it not for execrable writing, filled with inexplicable whining and adulation. Many anecdotes were intended to be revelatory but were mostly perplexing. Sentences were often poorly crafted, with grammar that escaped the editor's eye. Sorry, but a few more drafts would have resulted in a much better book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3MLL8CNNPKY0V
• Interesting Life, But Author Failed 22 February, 2008
I enjoyed reading this because of the subject's devotion to fresh, local, sustainable food, but was disappointed in the writing. The book is mainly a compilation of quotes from Alice Waters and her friends and people she's worked with - there's no synthesis provided by the author, no insight. It seems on the surface to be giving an honest portrait of the woman and her restaurant, but I just felt that there was a lot left unrevealed and unanalyzed. Instead of giving a clear-eyed assessment, this book fit into the mold of every project Alice has embarked on: She handpicked her biographer and gave him full access to sources so that it feels like a community effort, but she also made sure the book only carried the tone she desired - the tone she envisioned it should have - and was too impatient to provide or allow any introspection.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1BJZ4D6A11X71
• Eating Local!! Fresh And Best!! 13 February, 2008
This is living proof that if we would only eat what is fresh and in season, we would experience flavor and taste, and "better for you" foods, as the food is FRESHER---this remarkable chef has treated food with respect-no contrivance here. Read and eat!
- Reviewed by customer ID: ASX7DYQ3PENR4
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