Alice Waters and Chez Panisse

I decided to read Alice Waters and Chez Pannisse by Thomas McNamee  because I kept hearing about Alice Waters in regards to the Slow Food movement and Edible Schoolyard and I wanted to know more about her. This book focuses on her restaurant- Chez Panisse which also was most of Alice's life and beginnings in the food world. This restaurant has been called one of the best restaurants in the United States and has received many accolades. The book follows the birth of the restaurant in 1971 up to 2006. What I found interesting is that Alice does not have any culinary training yet her restaurant is one of the best. She also was on the frontier of using local, organic foods in her restaurant decades before it became popular. She even wrote to President Clinton and Hillary imploring them several times to start a garden at the White House, which we know did not happen until this year with President and Michelle Obama. Alice Waters was always a head of her time and I think we have her to thank for the current focus on healthy, local, organic foods. The book chronicles the eccentric and certainly not glamorous or always profitable workings behind Chez Pannisse and Alice Waters.