Alice Waters: Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook

When Alice Waters opened the doors of her "little French restaurant" in Berkeley, California, in 1971 at the age of twenty-seven, no one ever anticipated the indelible mark it would leave on the culinary landscape -Alice least of all. Fueled in equal parts by naivete and a relentless pursuit of beauty and pure flavor, she turned her passion project into an iconic institution that redefined American cuisine.

Alice Waters is the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Cafe in Berkeley, California. She founded The Edible Schoolyard.

In Coming To My Senses, Alice retraces the circuitous path that led her to Berkeley and the tumultuous times that emboldened her to find her own voice as a cook, while the prevailing food culture was merely embracing convenience and uniformity. Moving from a repressive suburban upbringing to Berkeley in 1964 at the height of the Free Speech Movement and terrific campus unrest, she was drawn into a bohemian world of artists, filmmakers and other charismatic figures whose views on design, politics, film, literature, fashion and food would ultimately become the unique culture on which Chez Panisse was founded. Dotted with stories, recipes, photographs and letters, Coming To My Senses is a quietly revealing look at one woman's evolution from a rebellious yet impressionable follower to a respected activist-and how she constructed the iconic institution that redefined American cuisine for generations of chefs and food lovers alike.

Presented by KPFA Radio 94.1 FM.

With Steve Wasserman, Executive Director of Heyday Books.

Host: Kris Welch is a veteran, very popular KPFA on-air host, a mother, and a grandmother.

Admit one: $15, T: 800-838-3006 or independent bookstores, $18 door
Benefit: KPFA and The Edible Schoolyard Project info: kpfa.org/events wheelchair access

$15 advance, $18 door.