In the so-called gourmet ghetto in North Berkeley, an area that has a lot to offer in terms of food, there is Chez Panisse, founded in 1971 by Alice Waters and Paul Aratow. Alice Waters is a fundamental figure in the culinary history of North America. Recent awards she has received include the Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed upon her in 2007 by the organization that, since 2002, publishes the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (in which Chez Panisse restaurant this year is 37^th) and the Global Environmental Citizen Award by the Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.

As the web page I just referenced regarding the Lifetime Achievement Award notes, Alice Waters’ principle is to serve fresh, local ingredients in season, a principle that in 1971 was revolutionary. The relationship with farms applying sustainable practices is important for Ms. Waters, and the restaurant and café menus often mention their names. The restaurant, open only for dinner, serves one fixed-price menu that changes daily. The upstairs café, opened in 1980, serves both lunch and dinner. Its à la carte menu also varies (the web site only shows the Friday menu).

In 1996, Alice Waters created the Chez Panisse Foundation to support initiatives that educate young people about food and its connection to health and the environment. One such initiative is the edible schoolyard, a vegetable garden where the students of a Berkeley middle school grow the ingredients that are then used to prepare dishes in the demonstration kitchen.

With Chez Panisse, her books and her various activities, Alice Waters invites her audience to treasure the riches of their land, to rediscover the connection between food production and consumption. Her cuisine favors a simplicity that highlights the ingredients. I must admit that such style is very close to my personal ideas. Recently, my husband and I had dinner twice at the café. In both cases I made reservation a few days in advance and had no trouble finding a space, though neither day was during the weekend. I don’t know how far in advance one must make reservations for the restaurant, where I have never been.

The first time I ordered baked local petrale sole with small baked potatoes and a salad of chervil and peppercress: a flavorful dish seasoned with olive oil, without any sauce (just the way I like it). The second time I ordered wild mushrooms and ricotta toast with green garlic, cannellini beans and kale, again seasoned with olive oil only. Both dishes were excellent: each ingredient’s flavor was distinct and at the same time in harmony with that of the other ingredients. And what about meat offerings? Here’s what my husband ordered the last time: Laughing Stock Farm pork shoulder braised in the wood oven, with artichokes, fennel and fava bean salsa. He liked it, but not as much as the roasted lamb dish he had ordered the previous time, whose details I unfortunately failed to write down.

My husband ordered one of the desserts each time, and I had a bite. The first choice was a persimmon bread pudding with Chantilly cream. The second was a M. Cluizel bittersweet chocolate pavé with espresso cream. My favorite was the bread pudding, made notable by the persimmon’s flavor and texture. For dessert one could order fruit, served in an elegant small fruit bowl. Both times we had dinner there, the bowl contained mandarins and dates (from different farms), an interesting pairing, in terms of color and taste. Next time, I plan to add to the dinner at the beginning, by choosing an appetizer, like baked goat cheese with garden lettuces, or a pizzetta, maybe with nettled and pecorino.

I end with a reference to an article published last September in the New York Times in which Kim Severson recounts her experience of going shopping with Alice Waters at the Union Square Greenmarket, in New York, and of watching her prepare lunch with the ingredients bought at the market. A short movie complements the nice article (whose text notes that Alice Waters pulled back from her daily work at Chez Panisse a year before). The article’s author describes the lunch as “a simple and beautiful thing.” I believe that those words aptly describe my pleasant experience at the Chez Panisse café.

Column ‘Cooking in California’ last article was about California Farmers’ Markets.

[by Simona]

Questo articolo è stato pubblicato Martedì, 13 Maggio 2008 alle 10:10 e classificato in Cucina in California, Eventi e notizie, Ingredienti e Prodotti, Letture, Luoghi. Puoi seguire i commenti a questo articolo tramite il feed RSS 2.0. Puoi inviare un commento, o fare un trackback dal tuo sito.