Food with Mark Bittman: Alice Waters

We’re happy to welcome back to the podcast the incomparable Alice Waters, whose latest book, A School Lunch Revolution, came out this month.

Alice’s profoundly meaningful career has literally affected the way Americans think about food. Here are the two most important things she’s said to me in the 30 or so years we’ve known each other:

1. When Alice started Chez Panisse, she and her crew asked farmers for what the restaurant needed to execute the menu. Within years—and especially with the encouragement and partnership of the farm that became, and remains the most important to Chez Panisse, that of Bob Cannard—the restaurant began to buy what the farm was growing. Think about that. Not what the restaurant thought it needed; but what was the best available. This is the right way to think about cooking.
2. Buy great ingredients, and don’t fuck them up.

Here’s my conversation with Alice and Kate.

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