When a modest restaurant calledChez Panisseopened its doors 50 years ago in Berkeley , California , it was n’t obvious that it would change how American language mean about consume . The first bill of fare on Aug. 28 , 1971 , was pâté broil in pastry , duck’s egg with olives , a salad and an almond tart , process for a fasten price of $ 3.95 . There were too many host and not enough utensils .
But this apparently far-out eatery ’s food was more vivid and flavorful than that of French eating place that were more elegant and expensive . Alice Waters , who founded and still runs Chez Panisse , did n’t formulate epicurean food for thought , as I write in my book " Ten Restaurants that deepen America ; " her gravid innovation was to orient fine dining toward master ingredients .
Today , Americans value local , seasonal , and artisanal products on restaurant menus and at the market . The importance of starting with in effect - quality ingredients seems so obvious that it ’s hard to realize why this was an alien idea 50 age ago .
Beyond French Cuisine
Despite some grumbling abouttasteless tomatoes , eatery buffet car and shopper in the seventies cared primarily about low price and the availability of a motley of products regardless of season . Where food came from — and even what it smack like — was less important .
In 1970 , the food writer Mimi Sheraton commented , " You ca n’t buy an unwaxed cucumber in this country … we buy over - tenderized meat and frozen chicken … nutrient is marketed andgrown for the purpose of appearance . "
At that time , high-pitched - end dining was still defined , as it had been for 300 years , by France . There , basic product such as chickens from Bresse , oyster from Belon orsaffronfrom Quercy were exemplary and sought - after . Elsewhere , ape were more preoccupied with sauce , proficiency and fashion than with what really plump into their sweetheart .
Even if chef wanted better tender ingredients , theindustrialization of U.S. agriculture and livestock productionmade them hard or impossible to find . " Dining at the Pavillon , " a 1962 book about New York ’s Le Pavillon , quoted its notoriously self-important owner , Henri Soulé , ruefully maintain that he was unable to obtain thing that the ordinary French shopper took for granted : young partridges , primeurs ( early spring vegetables ) , Mediterranean fish like red mullet or rascasse , and properly older cheeses . In the United States , alas , " Everything is fresh all class - round and isnever quite fresh , if you see what I mean . "
Waters firmly believed that a restaurant could be no sound than the ingredients it had to exercise with . But she struggled to find gamy - quality foods . Produce was the heavy , and her attempts to produce a farm take to the woods by the eating place failed . Besides a few Chinese and Japanese markets , the eatery had to look on urban nurseryman and foragers who knew where to find unfounded mushrooms and cress green . In 1989 , Waters still found itchallenging to obtain effective butter , Olea europaea or prosciutto .
Chez Panisse ’s fare were carefully faithful to Gallic models in its early years . Then , between 1977 and 1983 , the eating place gradually shifted to what would become its focus : " California " or " New American " cuisine . Beef bourguignon and duck’s egg with olives were out;spicy Cancer pizzaandwarm goat cheese saladwere in . As sodbuster and foragers realized there was a market for seasonal local production , they started producing for it , put the base fortoday ’s farm - to - table apparent motion .
Driving a Food Movement
Many other California eatery and chef helped catalyze this revolutionary turn to local ingredient and an eclectic aesthetic . Chez Panisse alumniMark MillerandJudy Rodgerswent on to found new restaurants that explore beyond the modified Mediterranean aesthetic that breathe in water . Another Chez Panisse veteran , Jeremiah Tower , create a more aggressively elegant cuisine at his San Francisco restaurantStars .
But food historians recognize Alice Waters ' innovation , persistence and dedication . Joyce Goldstein annotate in her 2013 Holy Scripture " Inside the California Food Revolution " , " I did not set out to write an encomium to Alice , but I ’ve got to pass it to her , she drove the caravan of the component revolution . "
Waters asserted from the outset that food from a more local , belittled - shell agricultural system would n’t just savour better , it also would amend life story and human relations . She has been an militant for causes browse fromschool foodandsustainabilitytoclimate modification , always attract connection between better - try food and social and environmental healing .
And she has push back against skeptics who say that eat on topically and organically isaffordable only for a low elite group . Her reply is that access code to affordable , decent food for thought from sustainable sourcesshould not depend on wealth or societal privilegeany more than nice medical care should be available only to the confluent .
Chez Panisse has been startlingly consistent during its 50 - year pair . It is at the same address , and the menu is still limited on any given 24-hour interval but changes constantly . The nidus on using only the safe ingredients is as vivid as ever . The meals I ’ve eaten there , most late in 2016 , have all been marvelous .
Staying on Track in a Changing Industry
As recent events have shown , eating place are n’t utopias , however starry their aspirations . In 2017 and 2018 the diligence was rocked by the # MeToo movement , which exposedabusive chef and substandard wagesat top - order organizations . Restaurants have also faced unfavorable judgment for wasting food andperpetuating racial and economical inequality .
Restaurants are a historical cultural phenomenon rooted inbourgeois ambition . bear them to advance social Department of Justice may seem as naïve as expect corporate decision - making in a high - pressure intellectual nourishment Robert William Service surroundings where the impress response to whatever the boss says is " Yes , chef . "
The nature of culinary celebrity isclearly switch . Against this background , the constancy of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse is all the more impressive . Few eating house get to celebrate 50 years of divine service , lease alone a half - century combining seriousness of social purpose , at large organisational hierarchy and , above all , mere and delightful food .
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons licence . you could happen the original clause here .
Paul Freedman is the Chester D. Tripp professor of story at Yale University where he specializes in medieval societal account , the history of Catalonia , relative studies of the peasantry , trade in luxury products , and the history of culinary art .
