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moviebuffkt's review against another edition
4.0
This is such a lovely book. Waters is a fascinating woman and I loved hearing about her life. The story is not exactly linear but it is a rich and lively one. I want to visit Chez Panisse one day! Also a wonderful addition to my thoughts of the slow food movement.
kquixotic's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
I didn’t know anything about about Alice Waters or Chez Panisse before opening this book. It was gifted to me by a friend who is a food writer and a voracious reader, which predisposed me to believing it was worth a read, which it was.
As someone who enjoys memoirs, I also generally enjoy learning about origin stories. While in some ways Alice Waters’s story is extraordinary, the aspect that was less interesting to me was the class and race privilege that allowed her to receive education, to travel, to take risks, and live a financially precarious life, eventually building a hugely successful and reputable business. I don’t knock her for it, but I didn’t feel that it was specifically named either, despite spending a good deal of text describing her politicization.
Nonetheless, her unconventional approach to building Chez Panisse and staffing it is compelling and insightful. There was just enough of, “Wow how creative” and Kitchen Confidential to keep me turning the page.
As someone who enjoys memoirs, I also generally enjoy learning about origin stories. While in some ways Alice Waters’s story is extraordinary, the aspect that was less interesting to me was the class and race privilege that allowed her to receive education, to travel, to take risks, and live a financially precarious life, eventually building a hugely successful and reputable business. I don’t knock her for it, but I didn’t feel that it was specifically named either, despite spending a good deal of text describing her politicization.
Nonetheless, her unconventional approach to building Chez Panisse and staffing it is compelling and insightful. There was just enough of, “Wow how creative” and Kitchen Confidential to keep me turning the page.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
minty's review against another edition
3.0
First off, Alice Waters has a very odd way of speaking--the spaces between her words is so erratic! I listened sped up but cannot even fathom listening to this at 1x speed--it would've been too tedious to get through.
However, at 2x speed it moved at a good pace, and I enjoyed the stories she told. The story seems like it's chronological but isn't always, and at times it was a bit confusing. Overall I found Alice Waters to be far more endearing that I've felt about her in recent years. She has a way of coming across entirely humble while at the same time smug in all things, but I don't mind that.
I'm happy to have eaten a meal at Chez Panisse Cafe about 15 years ago, and this definitely made me want to return.
However, at 2x speed it moved at a good pace, and I enjoyed the stories she told. The story seems like it's chronological but isn't always, and at times it was a bit confusing. Overall I found Alice Waters to be far more endearing that I've felt about her in recent years. She has a way of coming across entirely humble while at the same time smug in all things, but I don't mind that.
I'm happy to have eaten a meal at Chez Panisse Cafe about 15 years ago, and this definitely made me want to return.
cindypager's review against another edition
4.0
This was a delightful read for a foodie like me. Getting to hear Alice's adventures in foodlandia, she shares her back story and the path that led her to Chez Panisse, her acclaimed restaurant in Berkley CA.
indecisivespice's review against another edition
4.0
What a lovely book. I'm a very visual, aesthetic person and learner and the way she describes good and her surroundings is just beautiful. The way she thinks about food and aesthetics really matches up with one of my close friends and her mom, who I adore, so it really was a treat listening to her reading this. Even when she repeated herself I didn't mind.
bkish's review against another edition
2.0
difficult to review cause I do admire alice Waters for her passion about food and quality and service. I ate at Chez panisse few times tho never downstairs prix fixee
I also read her earlier book about how Chez Panisse came into existence not sure name of the book
This book bothered me like it revealed someone I do not like and I want to like her. I cannot reconcile what I interpret as two Alice Waters. This is a woman born with what we call a silver spoon blessed with a healthy family and comfortable financial living and attractive to many men. She seems to be oblivious tho to people as if they exist for her benefit.
I read most of the book and as she began to talk about the birth of her restaurant and her way of cuisine I didnt have any interest to complete the book. I do tho admire someone with a passion for perfection
Judy
I also read her earlier book about how Chez Panisse came into existence not sure name of the book
This book bothered me like it revealed someone I do not like and I want to like her. I cannot reconcile what I interpret as two Alice Waters. This is a woman born with what we call a silver spoon blessed with a healthy family and comfortable financial living and attractive to many men. She seems to be oblivious tho to people as if they exist for her benefit.
I read most of the book and as she began to talk about the birth of her restaurant and her way of cuisine I didnt have any interest to complete the book. I do tho admire someone with a passion for perfection
Judy
jocelynw's review against another edition
3.0
They say that you should never meet your heroes, but I already met Alice Waters at the 2007 Fresno Fig Fest, and that was fine. But having read this, I would append that maybe you shouldn't read their memoirs.
I greatly admire what Alice Waters has done for food in the U.S.; she is one of the people who made it possible to have the career that I did. (The others were the many in the 1960s and 1970s health food movement whose food she looks down on in a passage in this.) I also generally love a bildungsroman. So theoretically this should have been right up my alley.
I kept finding myself mentally remarking on how terribly white-middle-class-mid-20th-century this story was. It wouldn't have been likely earlier as women had fewer opportunities; it wouldn't have been possible later with real estate being what it is in California. Waters undoubtedly made a great thing out of that cultural moment, and she recognizes in passing some of the factors (the Pill, the counterculture) that gave her that opportunity (though she ignores women's lib in general).
And it is clear to me, in her description of her childhood and young adulthood, what led her to become the founder of Chez Panisse. Her appreciation for the beautiful comes through in several ways, but unfortunately the book lacks insight on *why* beauty possesses her so, a sense of what in her early life was the spark that eventually motivated her food philosophy, or how she came to realize that her sensory perception was as unusually sensitive as it is. She does warn us at the beginning that she's not a reflective person by nature, and she's right, at least here.
As the book progressed, I found myself increasingly annoyed by a lack of the sense of the privilege that made it possible to be the person she was: being able to travel abroad, to call on her parents for money repeatedly, to take up training (unpaid) that didn't pan out for her (Montessori). The part of the book that takes account of this best is her afterword, but it's really more an acknowledgement of the impact of the cultural moment rather than an thoroughgoing appreciation of how very fortunate she was.
The person I would most like to hear from is her sister whom she mentions having lived off the grid for five years, and who during that time got into a fight with Alice about the merits of growing organically. (Alice was arguing against then, as the organic produce she had access to then was not up to her size or cosmetic standards.) I wonder what that sister, who was putting her values into very deep practice, has thought over the years about Alice's fame for doing something similar.
I'd like to read a second volume on the many years of running Chez Panisse and her food activism, but given that this one apparently took a decade to produce, I don't expect we'll see that.
I greatly admire what Alice Waters has done for food in the U.S.; she is one of the people who made it possible to have the career that I did. (The others were the many in the 1960s and 1970s health food movement whose food she looks down on in a passage in this.) I also generally love a bildungsroman. So theoretically this should have been right up my alley.
I kept finding myself mentally remarking on how terribly white-middle-class-mid-20th-century this story was. It wouldn't have been likely earlier as women had fewer opportunities; it wouldn't have been possible later with real estate being what it is in California. Waters undoubtedly made a great thing out of that cultural moment, and she recognizes in passing some of the factors (the Pill, the counterculture) that gave her that opportunity (though she ignores women's lib in general).
And it is clear to me, in her description of her childhood and young adulthood, what led her to become the founder of Chez Panisse. Her appreciation for the beautiful comes through in several ways, but unfortunately the book lacks insight on *why* beauty possesses her so, a sense of what in her early life was the spark that eventually motivated her food philosophy, or how she came to realize that her sensory perception was as unusually sensitive as it is. She does warn us at the beginning that she's not a reflective person by nature, and she's right, at least here.
As the book progressed, I found myself increasingly annoyed by a lack of the sense of the privilege that made it possible to be the person she was: being able to travel abroad, to call on her parents for money repeatedly, to take up training (unpaid) that didn't pan out for her (Montessori). The part of the book that takes account of this best is her afterword, but it's really more an acknowledgement of the impact of the cultural moment rather than an thoroughgoing appreciation of how very fortunate she was.
The person I would most like to hear from is her sister whom she mentions having lived off the grid for five years, and who during that time got into a fight with Alice about the merits of growing organically. (Alice was arguing against then, as the organic produce she had access to then was not up to her size or cosmetic standards.) I wonder what that sister, who was putting her values into very deep practice, has thought over the years about Alice's fame for doing something similar.
I'd like to read a second volume on the many years of running Chez Panisse and her food activism, but given that this one apparently took a decade to produce, I don't expect we'll see that.
rglossner's review against another edition
4.0
Alice Waters is one of the most important figures in 20th century American food. She is the founder, owner and executive chef of Chez Panisse, an influential restaurant in Berkeley, and a moving force for local, organic, sustainable food. Waters came of age in Berkeley at the height of the Free Speech movement in the 1960s, was strongly influenced by travel in France, and is a charming witness to some of the biggest changes in society in those years. The audiobook is read by the author.