Marty: Welcome, everyone, for what we know is going to be a memorable and a festive evening,
to celebrate the arrival of a portrait— which will be in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery —of Alice Waters and more about that in a little bit.
For this conversation, of course, we have two extraordinary people — and to introduce them and to give us a bit of context, I want to turn to Jack Watson who is the chairman of the commission of The National Portrait Gallery: Jack? [[CLAPPING]]
Jack Watson: Thank you, Marty. And to everyone, welcome to this wonderful, festive evening. We are so excited to have both Alice and José here, and we're-
we are so thrilled that Alice Water's portrait is coming into the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
Quickly, I want to tell you that the event tonight really started almost a decade, actually more than a decade ago, when an extraordinary woman named Virginia Outwin Boochever made a very generous gift to the Portrait Gallery to fund a national portrait competition.
We are in the third one now, and we have had for each of the two previous competitions — national competitions — of portraiture in every medium,
over four-thousand applicants. So we are engendering in the country, and among artists throughout the country, a revived in interest in American portraiture.
And, we are so pleased that the portrait of Alice, which is being unveiled tonight, was done by the 2009 winner of the Outwin Boochever competition, Mr. Dave Woody, whom you'll meet in a while.
The Boochever family is here with us - they continue to be very supportive in sustaining and expanding and enhancing this treasure of a national competition.
John Boochever is the esteemed vice chairman of the commission and his sister Mary will be talking to you at the presentation of the portrait.
I also want to note that your generosity simply in being here is also supporting the efforts of this competition and we thank you for that
Jack Watson: First, uh, a few words about José Andrés. I just met José half an hour ago, and I'm blown away. The guy does 5 things at once.
He was named the outstanding chef by the James Beard foundation in 2011. He is an internationally recognized culinary innovator. A passionate advocate for food and hunger issues.
An author. A television personality and commentator and chef and owner of the ThinkFoodGroup. To top it all off, he is in this neighborhood with us.
For those of you who don't know, just a word about the ThinkFoodGroup. It's the team responsible, under José's leadership, for, among many other things, some of Washington's most renowned and enjoyable restaurants.
Jaleo, Zaytinya, Oyamel, and The Minibar by José Andres.
The Bazaar restaurant, at the SLS hotel in Beverly Hills which opened in 2008, was named in 2009, as- by Zagat-
as the top newcomer restaurant in 2009, and on of the top 10 best restaurants of the decade, to give you some idea.
On another subject, but related, after José travelled to Haiti, following the earthquake, the devastating earthquake, he came back, and he launched something called the World Central Kitchen.
The goal of which is to feed and assist people who find themselves in humanitarian crises around the world.
He has been called, and I love this, by Food & Wine Magazine, the hero of the Spanish revolution. [[laughter]]
Because he's been such a central figure in helping create the Spanish food boom in the United States.
Jack Watson: Another title that he's been given by the New York Times, which I love, is the "boy wonder of Washington". [[chuckles from crowd]]
Alice Waters. Alice Waters is the founder and owner of the legendary Chez Panisse restaurant and cafe, as well as the Edible Schoolyard Project. She's recognized throughout the United States and around the world as a champion of the — I love this phrase too — the 'Slow Food' movement.
Chez Panisse, and indeed all of Alice's enterprises, are dedicated to changing the way people think about food. About the way they prepare it, about the way they are supplied to do the food preparation, about the way they cook it.
The effectiveness of Alice's efforts in the United States and, indeed, throughout the world, are measured in part by the exponential increase in the number of restaurants, farmers markets, and main-stream grocery stores, that now feature locally, organic-grown produce. She is in the truest sense of the word, a pioneer.
She's written several books, I wanna mention two: "Chez Panisse Cooking" with Paul Bertolli, and "The Art of Simple Food".
Alice is one of the most innovative, most articulate, most passionate advocates and activeness - activists - about the way we think of food in the whole world, and the portrait gallery is honored this evening to have you here for this conversation, and here for the unveiling of her portrait.
[[applause]]
[[sigh]] [[throat-clearing]]
José Andrés: So, Alice, we have to have a conversation. [[crowd chuckles]] Alice Waters: Oh dear.
José Andrés: But. I don't want to have a conversation, because what I wanna know is even more about what I don't know about you — and I think all of you, probably, the reason you're here.
We know amazing things about this woman. You can go to Wikipedia, or Google her, or buy her books, or— there's a lovely territory of what this woman has accomplished. And—
José Andrés: —the truth is that it is not very often that we find someone, that has a will, to do something. A will to change things.
We all have passions. But sometimes we keep those passions for our own.
When we see a woman like Alice, that what she believe in, she decides not to be quiet, but to express herself through her dishes. And to express herself through her opinions so she can help every one of us is really something to be applaud.
So, let's see if we are able to be taken away from her. That secret ingredient that made her. Without a doubt — I would not say, the most influential woman in cooking — but without a doubt, one of the most influential period, people that are making this thing, about food.
So, Alice, um, do you remember when we met? Alice Waters: I do, indeed. Right here in Washington. Right on the Mall.
José Andrés: And I can tell you - it was this guy - Joe Nathan call me, to meet you: "I'm bringing Alice Waters to your restaurant". And I went to the restaurant, and I began asking every single cook, sous chef: Where is this coming from? Is this local? [[audience laughter]]
Alice Waters: But it was during the Food-Life Festival at the Mall, probably—
Was that seven years ago? José Andrés: Six, seven years ago? Alice Waters: Six or seven years ago? I can't remember the exact—. José Andrés: By the Smithsonian. The Folk Life Festival - one of the most amazing festival, anywhere in the world.
José Andrés: And you came, and you came with a mission.
Alice Waters: I did. I did come with a mission. I don't know whether anybody came to our edible schoolyard there, but we built a garden. And we grew corn!
José Andrés: In the middle of the Mall! Alice Waters: In the middle of the Mall. In the middle of the Mall. I think I have a picture of it in this book about the Edible Schoolyard—
—And because there were pictures that were taken, and you saw the Capitol Building behind, and then you saw the corn there, and—
José Andrés: She was like a hippy from the 60s. But still, she is. For a reason, she made Berkeley her home. And she's an activist at heart, because she's always been, and she always will be.
But you came with a mission. And you had the idea to put a place, not a restaurant, but a place to share food. Tell us what, because a lot of people don't know— a restaurant in the middle of the Mall, with no walls!
Alice Waters: But it wasn't really a restaurant. José Andrés: What it was?
Alice Waters: What I wanted to do - and Joe Nathan was cheerleading, in the back there all the time, for the Smithsonian, and trying to negotiate what we wanted. And—
I kept saying, you know we really want to demonstrate what this could look like in a school. So, we really want to plant a garden with all the real herbs. And we want to build the structure in the middle, like a Ramada, where the kids come at the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, and they sit at the beginning of the class, and talk and decide what they're going to be doing that day in the garden.
So, it meant construction. And it meant a huge amount of planting and planning to plant - that had to go on.
Well, it was a boiling hot summer.
It was a boiling hot summer, and—
I think the people who were asked to do this - who were part of the Smithsonian - I think they had not quite the whole idea of how big I needed it to be. How— you know, I kind of wanted, a quarter of an acre. [[audience laughter]]
José Andrés: Well, let's face it, she wanted the entire Mall! Alice Waters: I really wanted the whole Mall - it was true! I really wanted the whole Mall, but - alas!
But they gave us the end - which was beautiful because it had a view right out to the Capitol, on that side.
And what I wanted to do - was make a table there, under an awning, under a shade structure, and really pretend that the people we invited there were like the students who would come to the garden.
So, we built a wood-fired oven out on the Mall, like the one that we had in Berkeley—
And we asked our friend, Ann Yonkers at the farmers market, would she figure out how we could get the fruits and vegetables from the market—
And we were going to invite people to the table that had never been seated together at one time.
And we were not sure that they would all come, because we really wanted Hillary Clinton, and Barbara Boxer, and we wanted Tom Harkin, and—
And when we called the offices, they say, well you know, they might drive by, you know we're not sure, they might come in and say hello—
I'm not sure that they can take off a half an hour, an hour, and have lunch, but we'll see how it works out—
And we invited restauranteurs. And we invited Robert from the D.C. Central Kitchen. We brought in activists—
It turned out that we, in the end, to make the garden work, I had to call every friend I knew, within about 200-mile radius, including
all of the people that were involved, to students up at Yale who had built the Yale Sustainable Food Project and were involved in the garden there—
And so - we had this kind of massive effort to lift this idea up. And I have to say, that when, um, you know these very busy people came by, and sat at the table, they didn't want to go.
And so, we had this beautiful opportunity to have people, that don't have lunch together, you know, having a conversation about 'edible education'.
And I think the really important moment for me, was with Tom Harkin - because I was seated next to him - and I said, you know, this idea is, I want it at every school in the country.
And he said, well what did you have in mind? And I said, I want to feed every child for free, at school.
And I want to buy all the food from local sustainable farms, from that region.
And I want the cafeteria to be taken out of catering and put into academia.
And I want it all tied together in the curriculum.
And he said, I know what you mean. [[audience laughter]] He said, I get it. He said, I can't do that, but I get it.
José Andrés: I mean - you have to be really bold - and think in a way that not every mind is able to think - and see what we are not able to see.
To put almost all your career on the line - to say I am going to open this kind of 'edible farm' in the middle of the Mall - because through my farm and through sharing food in a table, I'm going to be able to send a message I really want to send.
But this is 'Alice the Activist' we know, for the last how many years—
but I think that to understand the activist and the chef you've become, and the influencer you've become—
to a degree we almost have to go - obviously back - to - you look beautiful from very young, to me - you will always be young - but the younger years - of the 'Alice the Beginner', when—
something happen in her that make her say, 'wow, food can be, what can unite people and can be what change who we are'.
So, you study in Berkeley - and you move to France during your times that you were studying.
And was a little market - down in the street where you live - that somehow had the profound influence in how you understood what it meant 'food' - and buying food, and be close to the farmers and the fresh - and fruits—
how that experience as a youngster in Paris, in France, began influencing the Alice that you are today?
Alice Waters: Well, you know I think I have to really, um, you know in a way go back to my childhood in New Jersey - and I - because it's those experiences you have when you're really little - and I'm sure you had them in Spain—
where you're, uh, you know, living very close to nature - and I grew up in - right then in the mid-40s and my parents had a Victory Garden - and they didn't have very much money—
and so, we kind of, uh, you know, even though my mother wasn't a good cook - in fact, she was a very bad cook—
they did things like - make applesauce from the apples on the tree, and they—
I remember eating strawberries out in the garden - and they cooked rhubarb, and—
I learned the name of all the flowers, and—
I, I, my mother used to take us for drives out to see the Dogwood trees in the fall, and, and, what was happening - I mean, in the spring—
and how the leaves were changing in the fall - and it was a very, um, I don't know - as I kid, I ran wild out in the woods,
I mean you probably did too— José Andrés: I did. It's good that— Alice Waters: He definitely ran wild.
José Andrés: It's great I don't make my life as an interviewer or reporter--- because as you see, she answer, uh, whatever she wanted. Uh— Alice Waters: —I'll get to Paris— José Andrés: —she went back many years before.
So, what you're saying here that - really your childhood growing up - with the Victory Garden - sharing those meals at home—
I don't know you, but me, very quickly, we will not go to restaurants— Alice Waters: —yeah, we never went to restaurants— José Andrés: —because we did not have the money to go - so eating at home was a true necessity—
but it was a necessity that was highly enjoyable - and is one of the things probably I miss the most today. Is it the same experience you are sharing?
Alice Waters: Well, it was that - I mean we all had to come to the dinner table - but you think about the population in this country where maybe as many as 85% don't have dinner with their family anymore.
So, just image that - that they're, they're kind of eating on the run - or they're eating out there and digesting 'Fast Food Nation' values - they're out someplace else. And so—
I'm just talking about my childhood - because I'm thinking about kids coming - when they're very young - into this kind of environment that happens in school—
that they can come to - to smell and taste and be engaged in this way - just naturally - if they were to be involved with the production of food and the serving of food to each other—
and as part of an everyday experience, it would bring in a whole different set of values - that I think would be an incredible influence on their lives.
I think it opens you up - when your senses are stimulated in that way - you know those are our pathways, as Montessori says, into your mind.
And we need to touch - and we need to taste - and smell and see and hear - really finely - in order to really be engaged with the world around us. So, that's what it's about—
and I think people who - before this period of time, of industrial food - that all of us around the world - whether we are brought up in Spain or in the United States - which is hard to believe - that in my lifetime—
Alice Waters: We had completely changed the way we eat in my lifetime. So we have the possibility of changing back, coming back to our senses, coming back to real food.
And, I think in a way it's something so astonishing that I seem unusual, you know, that I'm doing something really unusual by just wanting children to eat real food at school. To sit down at a table and to take their time, and to connect with other friends, and to have the pleasure of being connected to nature.
It's a revelation every time I go over to the old schoolyard. I can't believe how beautiful it is and how excited the kids are.
José Andrés: For the people that don't know, tell us exactly about the schoolyard. You created in 1996 a Chez Panisse foundation and through the Chez Panisse foundation you supported the Schoolyard project. Tell us a little bit exactly what it is.
Alice Waters: It just happened in a very serendipitous way cause I'm always talking about how public education in Berkeley has deteriorated so much and at a place like Berkeley that you could not pay attention to what the public schools look like.
But of course that's happened all around California. We used to be number one in the nation in terms of excellence in the school, and because of the taxes sort of being changed around to benefit, how should we say, the people who had the money instead of the people who did not have the money, the schools were let go.
And now we're number forty-seven. Forty-seven in the country.
So, we have a school system that is unable to paint the building or mow the grass, pay the teachers, or have books and chairs.
And I was remarking on the state of affairs to some reporter somehow and the principal of King's school called me up and he said that "Come into my office" and so I did. I did. I went over to the school and he said "Would you come and make a garden in the front of the schoolyard. Make it look better.
And we walked around the school, and I said, "You know, I don't just want to make a garden. You have so much space." But it was a school that was really built back in 1921.
For 500 kids on seventeen acres of land. Seventeen acres of land back in 1921. There are a lot of schools that still exist, particularly on the east coast, that have a lot of land connected to them.
So, I just walked around the school with him and I just said "I want to do the whole thing, Neil. I think we should change the whole cafeteria, and we should build the garden, and we can take all the produce to the cafeteria and then they could eat lunch together and then they could go take it all back to the composting. I just went for the whole nine yards.
And I said, "It could be a beautiful test ground with teenagers." Because that's a very difficult group and there were a thousand of them. Seventh, eighth, and ninth graders.
And I thought if we could bring them into a new relationship to food, one that's very positive, that we could change their eating habits and really bring them into a set of values that would help them take care of the land, and nourish themselves, and communicate with their family and friends for their whole life.
José Andrés: Fascinating. So when you opened in 1971, Chez Panisse, I was two years old. [[audience laughter]]
José Andrés: I imagine that France had a big influence on you.
Alice Waters: It did. José Andrés: I imagine that the life in the streets, those amazing markets— you travelled to Turkey, you were influenced by Turkey.
But you are back in Berkeley and you open that place.
What you dream back in 1971, of what that place could be? And how it differs from what it has become?
Alice Waters: Well, I really just wanted a place to eat for myself and my friends. And that's the truth— I still want a place to eat for myself and my friends.
I didn't have any great expectations about it.
I was a disillusioned, very political person coming from Berkeley in the sixties,
and I was teaching school, but I wasn't very successful with the kids, I was very impatient, and,
but I had this idea of a simple place that served real food.
And I didn't know what that was except I had a taste in my mind.
And I still have a taste in my mind of the wild strawberries I ate in France,
The creme fraiche, the oysters on the half-shell, I felt like I had never eaten anything in my whole life.
Not anything. I was just kind of afraid of food
and I just kept it an arm’s length.
But when you go into a culture, and I'm sure it's the culture of Spain back then, when people, you know,
were engaged in the cooking of food for dinner and lunch for their families and friends
they had — went to simple restaurants to eat
and there were farmers markets everywhere, around every corner, and it seemed
to be just part of a rich, and meaningful life.
and I didn’t know what — I just knew that food was part of that food was part of that sort of big cultural experience
and that's what i wanted to do.
José Andrés: Around probably twelve years ago I had the opportunity with my wife to go to Chez Panisse in a train to Napa Valley
I called to make reservation to the restaurant, and obviously they are always full,
but luckily for us, many years later, it was 1980, you opened
Chez Panisse,
Alice Waters: Upstairs. José Andrés: After 71 you open upstairs, the Chez Panisse cafe. I ate there with my wife.
How many of you, you’ve been to Chez Panisse?
How many of you in your life? Alice Waters:
Alice Waters: Oh! [[laughter]]
Alice Waters: A lot of them! José Andrés:
Great. I went there, we order this Monterrey Baby Squid
Alice Waters: Um-hmm. José Andrés:
they were roasted briefly in the wood-burning oven.
I remember we ordered three order — we, we got three orders of those.
And the waiter told us “Sir, we need to leave some for the other people.” [[laughter]]
But
One of the things, as a person, probably as a chef
that taught me, “Come on, that cannot be true!”
And believe me, I didn’t say that in a good way,
is when I ordered the serve, and I get, two clementines in a plate.
and two dates.
José Andrés: Until that point, I had an amazing meal - I began understanding - about the legacy of Alice Waters [[?]] - but when I got that, I was like "Man, this is too much! This is what my mum does - at home, when I grow up!" [[laughter]]
Well, we order three more plates of those clementines, of those dates.
Taste always has been unbelievably important to you - and you kind of learned that searching for the taste is how you got into - knowing your farmers - the local—
Alice Waters: It's really about that. It's really about that.
And that's what makes it so possible to make this kind of delicious revolution happen—
because when you give kids food like this - and these are divine, I wish I had brought a thousand so you can all have them - but these are Kishu tangerines - we'll just start throwing them out there.
These are from a little farm in Ojai, California - and they're a beautiful little citrus that comes at this time of the year - and they're so easy to peel— José Andrés: I have to do it!
Alice Waters: They're so easy to peel - and they're kind of - and they're just, are seedless - and they're kind of sweet/tart—
And so - when kids - [[audience laughter]] - you just go right ahead - when kids, um—
José Andrés: OK, let's be serious now. Alice Waters: But I'm really, really serious, um—
José Andrés: It's unbelievable! Alice Waters: When kids have this - they can eat a whole bowl like this - it's just like, irresistible.
And when I'm in most schools - and, um, you smell the cafeteria - you just think, I don't want to go in there - I just don't want to go in there. It's like—
steamed broccoli - without any seasoning - and all I can think of is: where's the garlic? - why are they doing this? - why can't we just have, you know—
little, tiny tomatoes just with the - off the vine - why do we have to have food that's cooked, even? - I mean, it's so delicious like that. And that's how the kids are out in the garden—
you know they may be doing a maths class and measuring the beds - but they're eating all the raspberries. They know every one that's ripe and they race out there, and they go and eat those first.
They don't think this is school - they have a pleasure in doing this. And—
considering the number of kids who drop out of high school - wouldn't it be an amazing thing - to set up a business of running the cafeteria with the students - they run the whole thing themselves - they do the business of it.
[[to Andrés:]] You got to help us do one of these in Washington— José Andrés: I knew it—
Alice Waters: I mean, can you imagine— José Andrés: I'm on my way. Alice Waters: —that they—
Alice Waters: This has all been designed - by me - because I've prepared the classroom in a way—
—so that people get what I want them to do - in the end - and I— José Andrés: You got me at "Hello", Alice - you ask, and you get!
José Andrés: So— Alice Waters: —But I do want him to do this— José Andrés: So, Alice. You only thinking small—
José Andrés: Yeah, right.
José Andrés: What's the next thing in the life of Alice Waters?
José Andrés: What are you going to be concentrating over the next 34 years of your life? Alice Waters: [[laughs]]
José Andrés: Where, no, with her it is not about where she wants to go. With her, it is where we are all going with her. Alice Waters: [[laughs]]
José Andrés: Where are we going with you?
Alice Waters: We're going back to school. We're going back to school in a beautiful way.
Alice Waters: Now, I brought this poster because -- I thought [[laughter]] so it's eating, reading, writing, and arithmetic. That's it.
Alice Waters: Now, I think--and I've had this as my focus all along--I think since the first moment that the idea of an edible education sort of came to me in Berkeley, I wanted it to be in every school in the country.
Alice Waters: And I thought about it in the way, you know, P.E. came into the curriculum of the school. I thought E.E -- P.E. and E.E. -- could just be together like that.
Alice Waters: And I thought about how Kennedy had cheerleaded that idea back in the '60s.
Alice Waters: And how beautiful it was that he got every school in this country to build the facilities to have physical education become part of the curriculum that every kid had to take and they got graded on it.
Alice Waters: Now isn't that an amazing thing? He didn't spend money doing it. But he made the case for why it was an imperative.
Alice Waters: Why we needed to build the tracks, hire the teachers, and engage every child in physical exercise. Because he was worried about -- about the country and the physical fitness of everyone.
Alice Waters: And that's what I'm kind of hoping, is that we can make this compelling enough that the President of the United States will say that we need to have Edible Education from kindergarten through high school.
Alice Waters: That we need to nourish every child at school because it's more expensive to take care of them when they become sick. And that this is not only an obligation, but it's a moral obligation. To feed children in school food that's good for them.
Alice Waters: And, at the same time, I sort of think of it as kind of a stimulus plan.
Alice Waters: You know, because if you put a criteria in for the buying of the food and you buy it from the sustainable farmers, you're giving the money to them.
Alice Waters: And the parents don't have to worry about what they're giving their children for lunch, because the school is providing the lunch for the kids.
Alice Waters: And it's a kind of jobs plan too, don't you think? That you have to hire people to help to cook and to teach the kids.
Alice Waters: So, it's -- I just think it's an idea that's right as rain, that's what I think.
Alice Waters: It's something that just is a nonpolitical idea.
José Andrés: Yeah, right. We -- I was not lying when I was telling you that we are all already going ahead with this
José Andrés: because she's going to be knocking on the door of every one of us to join her on this -- we can call it "crusade", but "mission", in life.
José Andrés: Should we ask them -- let them ask some questions? Alice Waters: [[crosstalk]] Yes, I just -- I just had one -- Yes, we should ask them to ask us questions, but one last thing
Alice Waters: is that I have been knocking on the door of our governor in California.
Alice Waters: And we have plotted and planned that we are going to do a sort of a -- form a task force for Edible Education in California
Alice Waters: and we're gonna do 10 schools around the state in strategic places and find philanthropists who will help to fund it and farmers who will help to build it, along with teachers,
Alice Waters: and we're going to build these models that people will be able to walk into.
Alice Waters: And the mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, you know he's an impatient basketball player, used to be, in the NBA, and he really knows how to move quickly.
Alice Waters: And he says, "We want the first school in Sacramento and we want to do the high school where the kids run the whole high school together."
Alice Waters: And so, even if it doesn't really happen with the governor's blessing, although I'm pretty certain that he'll give it to us, we're doing it in Sacramento. José Andrés: [[crosstalk]] Well, if he doesn't make it happen, probably he will not be reelected, knowing you.
[[laughter]]
José Andrés: So. Alice Waters: So. José Andrés: Questions? We have 5, 10 minutes for 2, 3, 4. Madam?
{AUDIENCE} [[audience question, low volume]] ...around 'artisanal' education, for lack of a better word - and I wondered if you would share a little bit about... personal vision... what you see... the platform for it... anything...
José Andrés: You are talking about me? Alice Waters: [[laughter]] José Andrés: Ah, about her. Ah, sorry - the 'artisanal'—
Alice Waters: You're working on a— José Andrés: No, no, I understood— Alice Waters: —no, but I, I— José Andrés: —because I didn't know what she was talking about, that's why.
Alice Waters: Ah, no, well I--I am doing a— José Andrés: You heard the question? You heard the question? Alice Waters: Yes—
I am working on a book. We're calling it 'The Art of Simple Food 2' - and it's going to be talking about backyard gardens - and we're--we're planning on having it finished for the fall of this year—
and I hope it will encourage people to really plant wherever they can. Whether it's a community garden, a flower box, a-uh—
I don't know, I think of the median strips, and I think of gardens in public places where there're, instead of pansies here, uh, planting kale—
and when you harvest it, it can be very nourishing for an awful lot of homeless centers - we did this in San Francisco, uh, during the Slow Food Festival that we had at the Slow Food Nation event that we had in San Francisco.
But I think that the most important work of the foundation, that we're doing, is building a website, um, and collecting everyone's best practices around 'edible education'.
So, we want to know about the smallest and the biggest projects that are happening.
I went to a wonderful school today that was up on Capitol Hill - they actually called themselves an 'edible schoolyard' and I was so touched by it - where they had the kitchen lab and they're trying to get you, José, to get over there and teach the kids -- [[audience laughter]] -- So, you'd better—
José Andrés: I founded that kitchen— Alice Waters: You'd better get over there— José Andrés: Seriously, a little bit— Alice Waters: I was so pleased— José Andrés: I'm the community—
José Andrés: [[?]] Alice Waters: —that they had collard greens and kale growing right at this time of the year, right out in that garden.
José Andrés: That was initiative for farmers market, it were amazing. Alice Waters: [[laughter]]
Alice Waters: But what a beautiful - I mean, started on really hardly any money, just small donations - but the encouragement of the farmers markets here in D.C. - and a lot of volunteers - and that's how the Edible Schoolyard came into being.
But then we took it on as part of the foundation - just the way José Andrés has taken on humanitarian projects - to teach people how to feed themselves in the most difficult of places.
That's what we have to gather together - all of that information so that we can build curriculum without inventing the wheel - that we can - can really find about the best ideas for serving lunch - the best ways to cook in all the places around the world. And I'm very encouraged about the possibilities of it.
José Andrés: One more question? Sir?
Alice Waters: Well, it really, just depends and I uh I think that even that a very small garden can have a big impact on a student body.
It doesn’t have to be a garden that’s right there at the school.
I think you can connect with a garden that’s nearby
In New York, uh, there are, uh, there’s an edible schoolyard kind of garden at the Botanical Gardens in Brooklyn
And they connect with one of the schools that’s nearby
But, you know when I think about the edible schoolyard in Berkeley
And uh, it’s nice to have you know a nice little quarter of an acre so that you can bring a whole class up
You have enough room that you can have some trees and places to move
to have a compost heap to really have some of the special kinds of experiences in the garden
but to grow food, now this was something that I, this is my naiveté
But I really thought that we might be able to grow all the food that we needed for the student body at King’s School
when we started the Edible Schoolyard.
I mean, we might be able to grow mint for one day,
But I mean it’s just a craziness that I am so disconnected with what it takes to feed you know, 500 people
Even at Chez Panisse which is what we do we ahve two big gardens of 25 acres, plus, we buy from probably 75 other people during the course of the year.
So just think about that in terms of a school system. You could put a lot of farmers to work, really incredible.
José Andrés: So, I think, this amazing night that we are going to be spending a lot of time with you, and uh, more celebration
Going out once we go out, I think to end, it’s food for thought, no?
When we see the amount of people in the United States of America, could argue around the world,
That they’ve came out of the kitchen of Alice Waters
Judy Rogers of Zuni Cafe
Gail Puree for Ring Cinema in San Francisco
Susan Goyne of Luke’s in Los Angeles
Dan Barber of Blue Hill
So many other those are people that came directly from Chez Panisse
There are many others who have not been working at Chez Panisse, but directly indirectly were being highly influenced by
by what she has been doing all these years.
by her constant knocking on the door, telling you “You need to change your ways.”
Uh, you know, I think her restaurant, when she opened in 1971,
Was a Trojan Horse.
Was a Trojan Horse to fool everyone that maybe they didn’t believe that
the way to move forward is with the fruits and vegetables and knowing your farmers and all the things she believes in
And so you see, the restaurant was a Trojan Horse.
Because she is not really trying to change the neighborhood,
she's not even trying to change a city or a state,
she has the project of beign changing the country.
And I think want to end with paraphrasing the Riazza Buran,
1826, most influential book, at least on me, the man who said “tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.”
But the most powerful phrase this man wrote was, “The future of the nations will depend on how they feed themselves.”
José Andrés: That's a powerful phrase. And if we have to embrace that phrase in a person, I don't think it's a better person, really - to help us maintaining the north of - "Where should we go? Where are we supposed to be going?" - than Alice Waters.
So, I know we are gonna be celebrating her outside, but I do believe we need more than one recognition, so help me give her a big round of applause for everything she is doing.
[[applause]] Alice Waters: Thank you.
Alice Waters: [[laughter]] José Andrés: OK, we don't have insurance here - so please don't hurt yourself. [[audience laughter]] Alice Waters: No, but - just bring them right over here ... [[cross talk]] I could have them.
Marty: One--one final thought before--before we all adjourn up to the courtyard, where we're going to have the portrait unveiling and a--and a ceremony and presentation for that -
but the parting thought for this wonderful, really wonderful conversation - Alice and José - is: 'Isn't she a remarkable human being?' - and - 'Aren't we lucky to have her?'
[[applause]]
Marty: Please go on up to the courtyard.