Small farmers have few better friends than Alice Waters, who is credited with instigating America’s culinary movement through her legendary restaurant Chez Panisse. Today the restaurant, steadily ranked as America’s best, is known not only for its fresh, wonderful fare,but also for its dedication to local farmers, ranchers, and fishermen who provide all of the menu’s ingredients. Likewise, Waters has become a powerful advocate for sustainable farming, Europe’s Slow Food movement, and most ardently for her "delicious revolution" to educate school children about growing, preparing, and sharing their own food.

Waters’ evolution from a bohemian Francophile to culinary icon and food activist is charted in Thomas McNamee’s authorized biography, a wonderfully intimate portrait of the woman and the restaurant. Here we learn how the Chez Panisse ideal — Alice Waters and Chez Panisse"the best, freshest, most natural ingredients gathered locally" —evolved from herMontessori education and impressionable visits to France into the farm-to-table ethos which has inspired so much recent and renewed thought about the way we eat today. In between, McNamee balances this story with profiles of the many colorful chefs and servers who passed through the restaurant, serving loads of kitchen gossip with unique West Coast flavor, as well as delicious food descriptions and rich interviews, even "narrative recipes," supplied by Waters herself. But this is not just for Chez Panisse pilgrims. The book is also interesting as a business profile and a character study, as we see her complex character emerge from various angles.

Order a signed copy at TurnRow Book Co.