Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
by Thomas McNamee
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Book Reviews of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
Book Review: We owe Alice Waters' cooking respect, and gratitude - but, oh, what a horror this book makes her out to be!
Summary: 3 Stars
CHEZ PANISSE is a joy. I've made the pilgrimage four or five times; it's a splurge and a luxury and an indulgence and a delight. One eats wonderfully well there. Alice Waters, the restaurant's proprietor and director, has become identified with so many good things in cooking that who would want to tease those things and their patroness apart?
In buying an authorised biography, then, I expected uncritical adoration. That's what the book contains, larded with a sketchy recipe or a menu here and there. But even in a text meant to endorse Waters' apotheosis, the image presented of the woman is that of a monster of selfishness, destroying one person after another in pursuit of her desires. Sometimes the interests for which she crushes an acquaintance, a co-worker, are culinary; sometimes they're sexual; but what Alice wants, Alice gets, and her vast unconcern for others leaves blood and misery in its wake.
The first half has a narrative line, perhaps because some of the wounds inflicted are scarred over and the men and women interviewed have come to terms with what happened to them in Waters' undertow; they have constructed their own stories to explain their catastrophes, and the author in citing their stories finds his text ready-made. The second half, the more recent history, is flabby and shapeless, remarks rather than literature - A came to cook, B supplied vegetables, C left, D came to cook, Bill Clinton ignored Alice, E decided not to make pastry any more. Boring to the point of demanding to be speed-read.
But in that first half enough sordid fact peeps through the varnish of sanctity to make the book worth reading. Not worth buying, mind you. I made that error, and on finishing it during a flight from San Francisco back to London immediately gave it to the woman in the next seat, who'd "always wanted to eat there but never found the time". Get it through your library and wonder to yourself, as you follow Waters' career - what created this ogress, and however did so many people let her have her way?
Book Review: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Summary: 4 Stars
Though charmed by his subject throughout, McNamee reaches a high-water mark in profiling when he describes Alice Waters' decision not to fly home early from an engagement upon learning of her husband's horrible biking accident, in which his face was nearly ripped off. With a quiet touch, he shows the movement from private person to public persona, and what follows, merely by juxtposition, gathers a poetic intensity: Alice Waters' husband anxiously composing himself to meet her, as if he's a salad on a plate, and aesthetics are all; Alice sharing a domestic moment with her child, cooking an egg in a spoon. This "simple" dish, with its charged symbolism of egg and spooning, somehow turns unpalatable after that drunken-spider-in-the-cup moment of failing her husband, and the act of building a hearthfire seems fussy and false. One begins to reflect on many themes: the cost of success, cycles of a life, collaboration vs. independence, the strengths and weaknesses of idealism, temperament and character, senstivity and intensity, pleasure and evolution. It's difficult to fault Waters' accomplishments when we've absorbed her influence to degrees we don't realize, but her crusade to change the world by...encouraging the Cinton whitehouse to consider planting an organic vegetable garden?...getting Yale organic?...seems a bit trivial when I consider activists like Sally Fallon, with her Farm-to-Farm Legal Defense, crusade for raw milk and against the NAIS, which would put many small farmers out of business. If I'd fault McNamee as a writer, it would be for not asking Waters questions a woman would want to know: what did you eat during your pregnancy, did you breastfeed and for how long, is "organic" enough when you feed children? Still, the book is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and part of what people will read for is the ambient pleasure, the warm glow.Book Review: Interesting but Tedious
Summary: 2 Stars
The author explores an important chapter in American culinary history and examines a unique contributor to that history. Once I fought my way through the book, I learned a few things:
1.)the food world has always been full of adventurous and idiosyncratic people and Ms. Waters is no exception.
2.)while her contribution and commitment to evolving the national palate is significant, it is wildly overstated. I am reminded of Jacques Pepin's reaction in his autobiography of their first meeting and listening to her overly serious discourse on her food: what's the big deal?
3.)her single minded drive is typical of all zealots- they are surrounded by acolytes and squish like bugs many of those who they have used, typically by having others do the dirty work. Her exploitation of her ex husband for breeding was notably offensive.
Despite all, Mr. McNamee would have rated 4 stars were it not for execrable writing, filled with inexplicable whining and adulation. Many anecdotes were intended to be revelatory but were mostly perplexing. Sentences were often poorly crafted, with grammar that escaped the editor's eye. Sorry, but a few more drafts would have resulted in a much better book.
Book Review: Great Restaurant, Mediocre Book
Summary: 3 Stars
Everybody knows that Alice Waters's Chez Panisse is a foodie's delight, specializing in organic and local highest-quality ingredients and infused with the Slow Food ethos. The story of Chez Panisse and of Waters might be interesting, but this book didn't make it out to be. The beginning had some merit, detailing Waters's introduction to French cuisine and her ability to create a successful (by many measures, though not financially) restaurant in Berkeley and in the Berkeley style (e.g. waiters smoking dope and running off with wine bottles). At just before the midway point, though, the book begins its succession of less-than-interesting run-throughs of various characters (cooks, assistants, managers) who were part of the Chez Panisse story. It does not make for terribly interesting reading to chronicle which periods employed two chefs and which employed one, nor the preparations for the tenth anniversary party, then the twentieth, then the twenty-fifth. The last chapter brings it together nicely, though, being as it is about the food, its preparation and service. Instead of buying or reading this book, I'd suggest spending your time and money eating at Chez Panisse rather than reading about it.Book Review: Very interesting
Summary: 4 Stars
This was well-written and interesting - about a fascinating woman. I disagree with a previous reviewer's opinion that the author has painted Waters in a saint-like light. Many of the stories recounted certainly portray her as less than perfect, especially in her treatment of some of those closest to her, including her former husband. With all that she has accomplished, she is found to be just as human and with shortcomings like the rest of us.
The author seems to have gone to great pains to be very thorough and include a great deal of information, the book is filled quotes from those closest to Alice, there are menus reprinted from the earliest days onward, letters from friends and employees, stories taken from different sources (sometimes conflicting).
Overall I found it to be fairly balanced and a worthwhile read.