September 2021: GOLDEN JUBILATION AT CHEZ PANISSE, HOME-COOKING STYLE
Just when I was scrolling through Instagram a few days ago, I stumbled upon a post by Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, Per Se, and Bouchon, honoring the Golden Anniversary of Chez Panisse and its owner, Alice Waters. So, I thought, “Feature a restaurant that I have never dined in as a monthly theme? Why not? I have never done that before. Chez Panisse has several books for the home cook to access from the digital archives and try out in the kitchen. Plus, 50 years is just a glorious once-in-a-lifetime experience not every establishment has an opportunity to bask on.” My inner jury has spoken!
Christened by Alice Waters and Paul Aratow after the fictional sailmaker from Marcel Pagnol’s 1930 Marseilles trilogy, Chez Panisse opened its doors in Berkeley, California on August 28, 1971 and served Provence-inspired American “counter-cuisine”. Both Alice and Paul belonged to counterculture intellectuals of the academe, and the former was then searching a way to feed her social circle with the same simple food she had fallen in love with during a cultural immersion in France. Because California and Provence had almost similar climates, the solution to the dilemma was to interpret provincial French cuisine using American produce while allowing certain twists in the execution of cooking.
What was exceptional and revolutionary about the food of Chez Panisse was, and still is, its emphasis on finest and freshest ingredients dictated by the seasonal changes of the natural elements, a full 180°-turn against the conventional bounties sourced from industrialized agriculture that has grown malignantly massive and uncontrollably monolithic. Following the marching tunes and patterns of Mother Nature brought flexibility and excitement for the menu to adjust freely according to the daily availability of the raw ingredients and thus, win new patrons, who are in constant search for the extraordinary.
Using the finest and freshest ingredients mandated Chez Panisse to skip conglomerate businesses as an in-between and, instead, procure from local farmers, ranchers, and dairies of California, who knew how to take care of the land by natural and sustainable means. The “organic” food was deemed more delicious and more nutritious because they called back to pre-Industrial Revolution anti-capitalist practices and were harnessed from benign processes that do not upset the ecological balance. This bypass did not just put the restaurant in the sociopolitical forefront of the farm-to-table map but also provided a leeway of economic survival and sustenance to small-scale laborers and reconnected us, human beings, to respect the land we had once neglected and exploited. The food of Chez Panisse was a reminder that ecology and economics need not be mutually exclusive but rather share home as an etymological and actual aspect.
In its 50 years of existence, Chez Panisse has consistently earned critical acclaim and accolades, including a coveted Michelin star from 2006 to 2009. Its alumni of chefs have spun off of its mentorship and still continue to influence American tastes to this day. James Beard even complimented that the establishment was “not a real restaurant” due to the power of its amazing food and homey ambiance to convene and socialize people from different backgrounds into a harmonious and productive community.
Due to the long-lasting and legendary legacy of Chez Panisse, featuring its signature dishes is an appropriate theme and tribute for this month even if I do not have the privilege nor the foresight of traveling to Berkeley for an in-dining experience. Home-cooked substitutes prepared from the recipes and instructions of its cookbook series can still provide a vicarious simulation of eating inside the establishment. After all, if homemade food from Chez Panisse books can gather people into a loving social collective, even as miniscule as a home, would the act of cooking not extend Alice Waters’ ideology beyond the California borders?
