Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution (Hardcover)

by Thomas McNamee (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
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

From Publishers Weekly
Talk about dish: McNamee's book is a gossipy history of the famed restaurant and a biography of the individual behind its three-decade rise from humble beginnings to international renown. Alice Waters was a young, single American woman with strong, confident sense and vision but little experience in the restaurant business when she moved to Berkeley in the 1960s. She loved food and cooking, and dreamed of opening a restaurant; her passion and enthusiasm eventually produced a location, a crew and a clientele. The book chronicles the following decades with extensive detail from a behind-the-scenes viewpoint, going from stovetop to bedroom, from opening night right up through the restaurant's recent 35th anniversary. Larger-than-life personalities abound, but the primary focus is Waters, whose success occasionally comes across as attributable to accidents and other people as often as design. The author researched restaurant archives and interviewed dozens of willing subjects with Waters's approval, and the result is a mélange of reverential biography with restaurant and food history. Sidebars scattered throughout the text provide additional anecdotes and insight into Waters's favorite dishes. Serious foodies will devour this memoir. B&w photos. (Mar.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The; 1 edition (March 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594201153
• ISBN-13: 978-1594201158
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #269,609 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for Foodies only, March 28, 2007

By	Miles Chapin (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've just finished this book and I have to say that it had more in it than I had bargained for when I first picked it up. I knew I wanted to read the story about America's most famous, most influential, and arguably most "important" restaurant, but I was delightfully surprised by two other things about it. First thing, I've never read a story laid out quite like this - the narrative voices (it's kind of an oral history of Chez Panisse but that doesn't really do this book justice) overlap, blend, and harmonize with each other, and that of the writer Thomas McNamee, in a seamless fashion which sweeps the reader along in a way I've never before experienced. Second, I had no real understanding of the value and values of the work of Alice Waters & crew, and how important they are in 21st century America. To take this restaurant from its beginnings as a kind of Mickey-and-Judy "Let's put on a Restaurant" venture all the way through the culinary flowering of our nation in the 80's, 90's and 00's, and to be a leader of the pack the entire time, is quite a feat for Alice. And to end up with her labors on behalf of Slow Food, environmental education, and responsible sustainability... well it's a path I wish more people would travel. Bravo and toques off to Alice Waters, all the staff who have worked at Chez Panisse over the years, and mostly to Thomas McNamee and his publisher who bring us this story which is at once a delight to read and a good message for us to hear.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Saint Alice - hagiography of a restaurateur, September 25, 2007

By	Gregory A. Pearson (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

McNamee's book is an excellent read, no doubt. The story flows, the characters build, the plot thickens. I've been fortunate enough to often eat at Chez Panisse, particularly in its first 5 years, and had seen more than a few of the scenes the author, or one of his correspondents, describes. Alice's determination and pursuit of the best possible ingredient have always been remarkable. She's a Taurus, isn't she!

My only quibble is the rather overly respectful view McNamee takes of her. She's more a flesh and blood person than a saint, and the author might take that into account if he continues to plumb this vein of research.

All in all a fairly well researched and well written tome. Perhaps not as evocative as the chapter on Chez Panisse in David Kamp's, United States of Arugula, but a good book to open to any page & foster a laugh, a sigh or an hurrah!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific bok on many levels, May 20, 2007

By	P. Baker "Gadget Guy" (Solana Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As interesting as this book is about the founding and growth of Chez Panisse and about Alice Water's fascinating life, it's also about the creation and growth of California cuisine and the importance of the local farmer and sustainable ingredients. It's the antidote to Fast food Nation and provides some hope for healthier eating and the value of the small farmer. A terrific read that's wonderfully written.