The Mother of Slow Food
Evan Sung for The New York Times Food revolutionary Alice Waters.Last night, the CBS news program “60 Minutes” profiled chef Alice Waters. Ms. Waters has always been known for serving flavorful, seasonal foods at her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. But more recently she has emerged as a food revolutionary as the voice of the “Slow Food” movement, urging people to eat local, organic foods as a healthy alternative to fast food.
Her foundation also promotes the “edible schoolyard” curriculum, and lately she has called for the development of an organic garden on the White House lawn.
Journalist Leslie Stahl said that Ms. Waters, at age 64, “has done more to change how we Americans eat, cook and think about food than anyone since Julia Child.”
Ms. Waters said she didn’t plan it that way. “When I started Chez Panisse I wasn’t thinking of a philosophy about organic and sustainable,” she said. “I just was looking for flavor.”
Ms. Stahl also asked Ms. Waters about criticism that her advocacy of organic and local foods is “self-righteous and elitist.”
Ms. Waters responded:
“I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege, and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides. And everybody deserves this food. And that’s not elitist.”
Go to the “60 Minutes” Web site to see the entire 12-minute segment, “The Mother of Slow Food.” The site also offers extra video that includes a two-minute interview with Ms. Waters’s daughter Fannie, as well as a two-minute clip showing Ms. Waters cooking a mouth-watering breakfast for Ms. Stahl.
And for more, check out the Times Topics page on Alice Waters.__________________________________________________________________
Isn't Alice Waters great? Her 60 minutes interview was phenomenal, tons of Americans saw it.
Alice Waters truly is the mother of the slow food movement. Every chef in America knows of her and her restaurant. At most restaurants absolutely love what she does. And those same restaurants would love to do a fraction of what she has accomplished. At least that's how I feel.
Good healthy food should be our right, not a luxury. Every child should understand the freshness, and the connection to picking our own food. And of course to be part of the growing of food is a whole other experience. These are some of my fondest memories as a kid. The memories of helping my parents plant, water, weed, pick and then consume from our small diverse garden. Even if you don't have room for a garden a trip to a farm can make an impression on your child. Even something as simple as a trip to the Farmer's market is unforgettable. I absolutely do believe that schools should make more of an effort for an educational benefit to teach our children about farming and food.
By teaching our children early about good food has the potential to make a life long lasting impression. In addition to good food I also mean cooking. Since I am a chef and lots of adults approached me and express a desire to cook. These adults wish that somewhere and somehow there were taught how to cook. And of course it's never too late to learn. But I know that some of my desires to cook professionally came from the earliest moments that I can remember cooking with my grandmother. Even the simple things like watching her make pasta inspire me. These are memories that I would not trade it for anything.
My kids are nine and six and they love to. They understand the whole connection of farming, nourishing and cooking for themselves. In fact they always eat what they cook. So the more broccoli I want them to be the more have been cooked broccoli. The more salads I want him to the, the more salad I ask them to make.Since my kids to eat healthy a lot of other kids loo up to them. In fact it goes as far as them being cool. A first grader whose cool because he brought a salad and some sushi grade tuna from lunch.
Marcus Guiliano
Aroma Thyme Bistro
165 Canal Street
Ellenville New York
No comments:
Post a Comment