Tracey Taylor

Financial Times, August 18, 2007

FROM ALICE’S TO A PLACE OF THEIR OWN
Former employees of leading Californian chef Alice Waters are echoing her values in restaurants in the Bay Area, says Tracey Taylor

Mary Jo Thorensen was 24 when she was taken on as an apprentice pastry chef at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’ acclaimed restaurant in Berkeley, California. Now she has a restaurant of her own, Thorensen still remembers the inspiring work ethic at Chez Panisse and Waters’ constant efforts to “get that wonderful little thing”. “There was one old gentleman who supplied Alice with raspberries,” she says. “It was the only thing he had. They came in these little baskets with just the right-sized piece of wax paper in them. And they were perfect.”

Steve Sullivan began working as a busboy at Chez Panisse in 1975. He remembers the experience of being asked to take a dish back to the kitchen. “Alice would say: ‘Bring it over here - what’s wrong with it?’ She wouldn’t say: ‘Those customers are philistines’.” While at the restaurant, Sullivan developed a passion for breadmaking that led him to open Acme Bakery in San Francisco in 1983. His crusty sourdoughs and pains au levain are much sought-after among Bay Area foodies. Sullivan says he took with him Waters’ belief in the value of creating strong bonds - with staff, suppliers andcustomers.

Waters herself says she places a premium on good relationships. “I always hire someone I like, or a friend. When you are working long hours, it’s not just professional skills that matter. You want to find the right chemistry and be able to inspire each other. That’s what makes good things happen in a restaurant.”

Thorensen opened her own restaurant eight years ago. A much-loved local haunt in Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue neighbourhood, Jojo is tiny and its open kitchen allows customers to observe first-hand the calm and methodical manner in which Thorensen and her team work. The French country-inspired menu might include flat-iron steak served with anchovy-mustard butter and frites, and an apple candied Meyer lemon tart.

Like the many others who have honed their craft as members of Chez Panisse’s kitchen brigade, Thorensen credits Waters with shaping much of her thinking about food and how to prepare it. Certainly most of the restaurants and food businesses founded by Waters’ protégés emulate her commitment to sourcing organic produce and sustainably raised meat and fish - espoused long before the practice became fashionable - her attention to detail and her collaborative approach to running a kitchen.

“Honouring the ingredient” is a key Waters mantra. “Everyone who passes through Chez Panisse learns that one important thing,” says Paul Bertolli who was head chef at Chez Panisse for 10 years, ran the highly regarded Bay Area restaurant Oliveto for 12 years and recently founded his own artisanal salami company. “The first thing I knew when I set up Fra’Mani was that I had to find a great supplier of pork,” he says. Bertolli scoured America’s Midwest to locate farmers who were breeding hogs in a natural way and were concernedabout quality. “That was totally inspired by my work at Chez Panisse,” he says.

Waters’ roots are in the San Francisco Bay Area so it is not surprising that many of her alumni have not strayed far - that, and the fact that it is known as a food-lovers’ destination. Christopher Lee, also a former Chez Panisse head chef, now runs Eccolo on Berkeley’s fashionable Fourth Street. With its retractable roof for al fresco eating and zinc bar, the vibe is casual smart and the menu focuses on the best of Italy’s regional cuisines - thick cut veal chop with marrow sauce and artichokes al cartoccio comes cooked over almond, oak and Manzanita woods for instance. Lee says he has sought to learn from the way Waters managed her kitchen. “The old style French kitchen could be a hard place where everyone was badly treated,” he says. “That’s changed a lot since Alice Waters. It’s hard work in her kitchen but it’s a gentler place. The relationships are collegiate rather than hierarchical.”

Charlie Hallowell was 21 when he started work at Chez Panisse, ordering pantry items and checking inventory. He now runs Pizzaiolo, a buzzy Italian restaurant in Oakland’s Temescal district with a loyal clientele and in the San Francisco Chronicle’s list of Top 100 Bay Area restaurants for the three years since it opened. A former hardware store, the restaurant has an appealing rough edge with exposed brick walls, scarred wood floors anda giant wood-fire which turns outdelicious thin-crust blistered pizzas, as well as regional specialities suchas pork shoulder braised in red wine with polenta.

Italian dishes and top quality ingredients are also on the menu at Michael Tusk’s restaurant, Quince, in San Francisco. Tusk, another Waters protégé, earned a Michelin star this year for his menu which features home-madepastas such as pumpkin lasagnette and pici with goose ragu. The elegant but unpretentious restaurant is housed in a former apothecary in Pacific Heights.

Zuni Café, opened in 1987, probably captures the pulse of San Francisco better than any. Politicians, artists, celebrities and families are drawn to the vibrant, brasserie-style corner spot to enjoy classics such as roast chicken and Caesar salad as well as dishes inspired by the cuisines of Provence, Tuscany and Catalonia. It is run by Judy Rodgers and Gilbert Pilgram, both Chez Panisse veterans.

Then there’s Foreign Cinema which couldn’t be more different than Chez Panisse where co-owner Gayle Pirie worked for four years, but the emphasis on local ingredients and meat from sustainable ranches is straight from her mentor’s bible. Movies are projected on to the back wall of the enormous terrace at this hip Mission District restaurant which Pirie runs with her partner John Clark.

These days Waters dedicates some of her time to the Chez Panisse Foundation, one of whose programmes, the Edible Schoolyard, teaches school-children to grow and cook their own food. She is also a prominent member of the Slow Food movement. While she clearly has a devoted following, she is not necessarily regarded as a crusader with disciples in tow.

“She is neither a preacher nor an evangelist - quite the contrary,” says Jonathan Waxman, who worked with Alice Waters and fellow chef Jean-Pierre Moullé at Chez Panisse in the restaurant’s heady early days in the 1970s and went on to introduce Californian cuisine to New York. “In this business there are a lot of egotistical people and, in that respect, Alice is a breath of fresh air.” The menu at Barbuto, Waxman’s Italian/Mediterranean restaurant in Manhattan’s meatpacking district, has been described as “aggressively seasonal”. Choices might include Eaton farm’s Berkshire pork chop with rocket and rhubarb chutney. With some partners, Waxman has recently opened a new restaurant, the West Country Grill in Sonoma, California.

Waters herself says she regards the network of Chez Panisse graduates who are carrying forth the spirit and philosophy of her restaurant as an extended family. “I am very proud of them. They have expanded so far beyond what I imagined,” she says.