Alice Waters: We Are What We Eat

Alice Waters is a true Bay Area icon and one of the most influential chefs of her generation. 

A long-time food activist, Waters first opened Bay Area local restaurant Chez Panisse in 1971 with the intention of feeding people good food during a time of political turmoil. Customers responded positively to the restaurant and its focus on locally sourced organic ingredients, delectable hand-made dishes, and wonderfully mastered hospitality. 

In pioneering a revolutionary approach to food preparation and service, Waters determined that the rise of fast food, frozen meals, and prepackaged ingredients were increasingly overshadowing the human qualities of eating and cooking. In her recent book We Are What We Eat, Waters urges us to take up the mantle of slow food culture. She writes this book as a declaration of action against fast food values and a working theory about what we can do to change the course. 

From years of working with regional farmers, Waters learned about the dangers of pesticides; the plight of fieldworkers; and the social, economic and environmental threats posed by industrial farming and food distribution. Thus she says every decision we make about what we put in our mouths affects our bodies and the world at large. By eating in a “slow way,” the philosophy at the core of her life’s work, Waters says we can be empowered to prioritize and nurture a different kind of culture, one that champions values such as biodiversity, seasonality, stewardship and pleasure in work.

Join us as Alice Waters teaches us how to change our relationship with food to unlock a radical reconsideration of how each of us cooks and eats.

SPEAKERS

Alice Waters

Chef; Founder and Owner, Chez Panisse; Author, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto; Twitter@AliceWaters

In Conversation with William Rosenzweig

Faculty Co-Chair, Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business

Program Chair: Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez

CEO, La Cocina; Member, The Commonwealth Club of California Board of Governors

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded on July 12th, 2022 by the Commonwealth Club of California.

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