Alice Waters Delivers Delicious Words to Live By

Worthwhile to Read or Listen To!

I recently listened to the the audiobook, We Are What We Eat by Alice Waters. It is available in book form in stores, online, and audible apps like Libby, “the award-winning much-loved app for libraries.” Back in June 2021, there were quite a few articles written about Alice Waters and her new book, We Are What We Eat, as it was being released. With the popularity of her new book, I had to wait a few months to borrow the audiobook on Libby read by Alice Waters herself. Once I was able to borrow and listen, I breezed through the approximate six hours of her book, absorbed by her straightforward candor on the state of our food industry, agriculture, culture, food practices, climate change, and more. You may think of her as a successful restaurateur, but she is really so much more—able to speak history, science, politics, philosophies, etc. at a drop of a hat, or should I say a drop of a spoon.

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know first hand how I revere Waters and her philosophy, books, teaching, activism, and Edible Schoolyard Program. It is the same message she has preached for decades, and she doesn’t back down.

Now 77, Waters has decades of material and stories to draw from her childhood, well known Chez Panisse 50-year-old restaurant, and food experiences and events revolving around the globe. Waters wisely uses these stories to illustrate her points from chapter to chapter.

While the first part of the book focuses on explaining our fast food culture with chapters called Convenience, Uniformity, Availability, Truth in Advertising, Cheapness, and Speed. The second half of the book focuses on explaining slow food culture with chapters called Beauty, Biodiversity, Seasonality, Stewardship, Simplicity, and Interconnectedness. I particularly like how she shares her time in France, and how deeply influenced she was through their food culture, markets, and the people she met to understand these now called slow food principles.

I can relate. These are all principles I try to live and eat by, and what I talk so much about in my cooking classes and presentations. Less is really more, and within simplicity there is so much golden, so much elegance. I highly recommend reading or listening to this book.

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” —French Proverb

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend….Bonnie