Happy Birthday, Alice Waters!
By: Amy Holwerda
Published: April 28, 2011

Today is Alice Waters, the mother of American food’s birthday. We can barely contain our celebration as we look back at all the hard work and change Waters is responsible for after dedicating her life to hospitality, fresh flavors, and food that benefits everyone – from the farm to the feast.
To honor Alice Waters and all her accomplishments today, here is a roundup of the organizations Waters is passionate about and uses to further her message of organic, sustainable cooking. Please read, share, and if moved, adopt Waters’ practices. Spreading the word is the best gift we can give Waters on her very special day.  Happy Birthday, Alice!
Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse is Waters’ restaurant located in Berkeley, California. Chez Panisse invites diners to “partake of the immediacy and excitement of vegetables just out of the garden, fruit right off the branch, and fish straight out of the sea.” Opened in 1971, Chez Panisse has become one of the most awarded restaurants in the world, helping to earn Waters the S. Pellegrino Lifetime Achievement Award, and the James Beard Foundation Best Chef in America Award.
Slow Food
Alice Waters has served as the vice-president of Slow Food International since 2002. This organization links supporters in over 150 countries to combat the rise of fast food, the decline of local food tradition, and the near disappearance of interest in where food comes from, how it tastes, and how our food choices affect the world.
The Edible Schoolyard
The Edible Schoolyard is a thriving one-acre organic garden at the Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California. 6th, 7th, and 8th graders participate in gardening, cooking, and health classes designed to give the students knowledge to make lifelong, healthy choices about food.
Yale Sustainable Food Project
The Yale Sustainable Food Project manages an organic farm on Yale University’s campus, and runs diverse programs to help people engage with the farming world around them. This program helps students “draw meaning and pleasure from the connections among people, land, and food.”
School Lunch Reform
Alice Waters has long been a crusader for the reform of school lunches. In three years of spreading her message, Waters and her team were able to eliminate nearly all of the processed food in the Berkeley United School District. Now, she’s setting her sites on New York, New Orleans, and beyond.
If you would like to learn even more about Alice Waters and her cooking style, please browse her highly acclaimed cookbooks, including the Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook, which was listed in The Observer’s 50 Best Cookbooks of All Time.
Photo Source: David Sifry