Archive for the ‘Alice Waters’ Tag
Always Home by Fanny Singer is a beautifully-written homage to her childhood as the daughter of renowned chef and food activist, Alice Waters. The inspired black and white photos and recipes are a bonus.
Singer was born after Chez Panisse opened its doors. The Berkeley restaurant, at the forefront of using locally-grown, organic ingredients, is where California cuisine and Waters garnered international attention. The book reveals as much about Waters as the author; it creates a sense of envy at their lifestyle. Not only because of the food prepared and eaten, but their travel experiences. Summers in the south of France, vacations in Italy and Mexico are vividly rendered through descriptions of the landscapes, along with meals and those with whom they were shared.
Yes, Singer is close to her mother but Waters isn’t the only influence on this accomplished writer. A host of honorary aunts, uncles, grandparents and those with direct connections to the restaurant, considered “La Famille Panisse,” fill the pages in much the same way they contribute to Singer’s life.
Each chapter is filled with humor – some self-deprecating. While this might be considered a memoir, it flows more organically, as if Singer is having a conversation with the reader. Her memories are recounted in no specific, chronological order as vignettes: a Christmas here or school trip there. The result is an engaging and fun read.
Brigitte Lacombe’s photographs enhance the pages. Consequently, a coffee table seems a better place than a bookshelf for showing off this work.
Always Home
Four Bookmarks
Alfred A. Knopf, 2020
317 pages
Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook by Alice Waters is like dining at what’s supposed to be a very good restaurant but only a few of the entrees are enjoyable. Unfortunately, not all of Waters’s memoir is interesting. The parts that are, really are though.
Waters is credited with helping change the culinary scene in the 1960s by opening Chez Panisse which relied on a prix fixe menu that changed according to what was fresh that day.
Waters shared too much minutiae from her childhood. I don’t care about a costume party when she was four years old or that her step-grandmother was a cold woman. Things pick up when she transfers from college in Santa Barbara to Berkeley. What I found most interesting was how a trip to Paris her junior year of college and her years in Berkeley made such an impact.
The narrative is told mostly in chronological order leading up to the opening of the restaurant. Anecdotes about life post-opening are indicated in italics throughout most of the chapters. These asides are noteworthy, but they are also distracting.
The story of Chez Panisse begins with Waters’s desire to replicate flavors she experienced in Paris through a cozy, hip bistro-like ambiance. What set her apart at the time was what is now recognized as the slow food movement and the reliance on the freshest possible ingredients. Yet, there’s scant mention of either, nor of her recognition today as an advocate of sustainable agriculture.
Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook
Three-and-three-fourths Bookmarks
Clarkson Potter Publishing, 2017
306 pages
In a way I’d love to frequent a place often enough that I’d be known, if not by name, perhaps by where I liked to sit or what I ordered. Colman Andrews recounts the numerous places around the world where this is the norm for his dining experiences. In My Usual Table: A life in Restaurants, Andrews shares his earliest recollections as a child dining in many of the landmark eating establishments in the Los Angeles area. As a kid he, with his family, was a regular at Chasen’s, the Brown Derby and Musso & Frank Grill (only the latter remains today).
Where does one go from there? Apparently, everywhere. Andrews grew up to be a wine connoisseur, dining critic and co-founder of Saveur magazine. He’s also authored several cookbooks.
My Usual Table is an eat and tell memoir with casual and not-so-casual name dropping: Wolfgang Puck, Ruth Reichl, Alice Waters, among others. Some meals are described vividly, some barely mentioned while he focuses on those associated with the meals. What’s most fun is following Andrews’ time line, which precedes, for example, the farm-to-table concept to the present.
Andrews is a fine story teller, but his voice begins to wear thin about 2/3 through. It’s difficult consuming and digesting such rich, often heavy fare for too long. I enjoy dining out, but there’s nothing like a home cooked meal or an occasional burger for basic sustenance. I’m happy, afterall, to have my usual table be in my own dining room.
My Usual Table: My Life in Restaurants
Three-and-a-half Bookmarks
Ecco, 2014
311 pages
The Blue Page Special 