Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook by Alice Waters, 030771828X

Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook by Alice Waters

Print Length: 320 Pages
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Publication Date: September 5, 2017
Language: English
ASIN: B01MRWE0A4
ISBN-10: 030771828X
ISBN-13: 978-0307718280
File Format: EPUB

The long-awaited memoir from cultural icon and culinary standard bearer Alice Waters recalls the circuitous road and tumultuous times leading to the opening of what is arguably America’s most influential restaurant.

When Alice Waters opened the doors of her “little French restaurant” in Berkeley, California in 1971 at the age of 27, no one ever anticipated the indelible mark it would leave on the culinary landscape—Alice least of all. Fueled in equal parts by naivete and a relentless pursuit of beauty and pure flavor, she turned her passion project into an iconic institution that redefined American cuisine for generations of chefs and food lovers. In Coming to My Senses Alice retraces the events that led her to 1517 Shattuck Avenue and the tumultuous times that emboldened her to find her own voice as a cook when the prevailing food culture was embracing convenience and uniformity. Moving from a repressive suburban upbringing to Berkeley in 1964 at the height of the Free Speech Movement and campus unrest, she was drawn into a bohemian circle of charismatic figures whose views on design, politics, film, and food would ultimately inform the unique culture on which Chez Panisse was founded. Dotted with stories, recipes, photographs, and letters, Coming to My Senses is at once deeply personal and modestly understated, a quietly revealing look at one woman’s evolution from a rebellious yet impressionable follower to a respected activist who effects social and political change on a global level through the common bond of food.

A fascinating memoir of life, love, and food from a legendary chef and restaurateur

I was pleasantly surprised that this memoir didn’t exactly end on Chez Panisse’s opening day, as some pre-publication material had led me to believe. Although that’s technically correct, she weaves so much information about the restaurant throughout the book as she talks about many of the important people in her life who came to play a role with the restaurant, some continuing to this day. We learn so much about the famous Chez Panisse menu artwork, about fabled pastry chef Lindsey Shere, about how the restaurant became a gathering place for powerful players in film, and much more. Although she does talk about some of the men she loved and lived with, one would have loved to hear her side of the story of her affair with Jeremiah Tower. However, as he didn’t come to the restaurant until 1970, this is, I’m sure, a good excuse for the omission. For me the great disappointment is that there is so little new material: almost everything, including most of the (few) photographs, has been published in one or more of her prior books, all of which I’ve read. Here she fills in a lot more detail about her early life as well as how, in her 20’s, she formed relationships with the people who would come to become so critical to the restaurant’s success, but I felt as though I were re-reading old material most of the time. However, it was still a fascinating read offering insight into how this now-legendary chef came to operate one of the nation’s finest restaurants well before her 30th birthday.