Alice Waters: Farm to Table Legacy & Culinary Revolution

We were fortunate to sit down with Chef Alice Waters, often called “the mother of American cooking.” Widely credited with launching the farm-to-table movement and shaping what we now know as California cuisine, she has spent more than five decades transforming the way we think about food.

In 1971, Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, a restaurant so iconic that chefs from around the world have made pilgrimages to experience it. There, alongside a community of remarkable talent, she championed a philosophy of local, seasonal, and organic cooking that remains as influential today as it was revolutionary then.

Waters has authored six books, including her memoir Coming to My Senses, and founded both the Chez Panisse Foundation and the Edible Schoolyard Project, initiatives that have inspired everything from school lunch programs to Michelle Obama’s White House vegetable garden.

Over the years, she has been named “Best Chef in America,” received the James Beard Humanitarian and Lifetime Achievement Awards, and was honored with the National Humanities Medal.

It was a true delight to speak with this culinary icon and learn what continues to inspire her extraordinary journey.