- Alice Waters is someone that I see as a real game changer in her field.

- So many of us, right, stand on the shoulders of giants, and she is one of those giants.

(lady chuckles) - Oh my gosh!

How much time do you have here?

- We know when Alice Waters, when she's joined us here at Cafe Alone, it was shared with a lot of mutual love for food right there.

- This person who laid the foundation has allowed, you know, allowed a lot of us to think outside the box and what else we can be doing as good stewards of our environment.

- I just think that there's nothing better than what she's done.

Yeah.

- [Narrator] Bay Area Bountiful is about agriculture.

(gentle upbeat music) It's about feeding us.

It's about land and water.

(gentle upbeat music) It's about the health of our planet.

(gentle upbeat music) It's about stories that matter.

(gentle upbeat music) Bay Area Bountiful, cultivate, celebrate, connect - Bay Area Bountiful is made possible in part by Rocky the Free Range Chicken and Rosie the original organic chicken the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space district, Made Local magazine and Sonoma County go local.

And through the generous support of Sonoma Water (soft music playing) - Alice is one of those larger than life figures in Northern California food culture and really was a trailblazer.

I think a lot of what is commonplace today in terms of a farm to table ethic, in terms of actually explaining to customers, you know, where their food comes from.

She was really the one who pioneered and started that movement.

And so, you know, I don't think that I as a farmer, right, could have existed in a world without someone like Alice Waters.

- I first met Alice in 1976 when I went to a restaurant with James Beard and Marion Cunningham.

Of course, I went there back many, many time.

In fact, I even cooked there for a couple of time as a chef for a week one time.

I went with my mother and I remember she was very impressed with the care that Alice gave to everything - We planned our whole wedding around just going to Chez Panisse.

It was like, right, we're going to Chez Panisse and we're going to get married - While we're there.

My gosh.

And we had so little money and we stayed in a a little motel in Berkeley, but it, none of that mattered.

Everything was about the meal that we were about to embark upon at Chez Panisse, which was such a dream of ours.

Yeah.

- She's been so instrumental in, in California cuisine the way that we look at our food and our farming and our values too.

She really set all of that in motion.

And when we left California and cooked in Japan and cooked in in Europe, it really gave us so much of an appreciation for how truly special California is and what we were excited to come home to and to do and really to like carry forth those values.

- Alice made a huge impact on my life.

My parents got divorced when I was 10 and the way I saw my father was to eat dinner out every Wednesday night.

And it was right when Alice was hitting her stride over at Chez Panisse and everyone started putting farm names on menus.

And that mattered to me.

It mattered to me to know where it was coming from.

And I was a vegetarian at the time and I called myself a French fry vegetarian because I love french fries, but also on menus at the time pretty much what was available was if you were a vegetarian was you could get a salad and you could get a side of fries and if there were vegetables on a plate it was generally broccoli, carrots and cauliflower steamed on the side of whatever the meat dish was.

Not very exciting and not very tasty.

And what Alice's movement did was make vegetables taste good.

She gave them the credit they deserved and she elevated them for whatever it is they had to say on a plate.

So cauliflower became a king.

Peaches became like the best, sweetest, tartest, softest luscious thing you've ever eaten.

And she supported all the small farmers.

So she changed our food system by making sure they had money.

And so yeah, I give so much kudos to Alice for changing the way we eat.

(calm music) - When you fall in love with vegetables, as you know your menus become vegetable forward because you love them so much.

I can't have a meal without a salad.

I can have a meal that's just a salad.

But I think that we have indoctrinated our nation about, you know, we've got something better than vegetables.

We've got a hamburger here.

Right.

- But I think the other thing is it's making meat not the center of the plate.

And it's a smaller portion.

Well, it's, which is really true about the Chez Panisse, I mean, right?

- It's always been that way, but, but it's always been that way in the history of eating around the world.

Meat has always been expensive.

And so you were very careful about the uses of it.

I always think about José Andrés I figure I can make three meals from a chicken.

He can make six.

And I just love that, that that you're using every little part.

And I don't think anybody has ever complained about not having enough to eat at Chez Panisse.

And if they do, they can have a second.

Exactly.

They can.

- We've always talked about sustainability and I think that word gets tossed around a lot in so many different ways.

Yes.

But when you say sustainability and regeneration, tell just tell what, how you see those two words.

- Well, I really have learned that I don't want it to be sustainable as it is.

My friend Ron Finley says, you know, you don't want it to be like it is now.

We want to change the way that we grow food.

And regenerative food is what probably our farmer Bob Cannard was doing from the very beginning, because he allowed all the little bugs in the soil, the, - Weeds, the weeds weed, the - The Weed weeds.

- He grew the weeds in between.

He thought, don't pull the weeds out.

- They will all contribute to the nutrition of the, the plant.

And so Bob always said his carrots were 20% more nutritious than anybody else's.

Right.

More nutritious than organic carrots because he allowed that to happen.

And I started to relate it to the way to run a kitchen, that everybody has an opinion and needs to express it.

And everybody's valuable in the kitchen whether it be the dishwasher or whether it be the, the carrot peeler.

(soft music playing) And they all have a job that creates something that's greater, we hope, than the sum of the parts.

(soft music playing) - So at this point - How do you see Chez Panisse?

Do you see, is it the same as your, as how you, when you first started - Well, it's always been a work in progress you know that, (laughing) I mean, it's just it's it's just coming every day as if it's the first day.

Right.

And, and you, you, you look at what you have, right.

You see those, those beautiful citrus.

Right.

And you, you're, you're trying, you're you're not writing down the recipes.

You know that, right?

Yes.

You're, you're looking at it with new eyes.

Right.

And I think it's really about a philosophy of food that has really been around since the beginning of civilization, that you do eat what is is available to you, close in hand, that you take care of the land because you know that that's where your food comes from.

And the people gather with family and friends and they celebrate occasions.

And this has been the beginning, you know since the beginning of civilization.

So it's nothing really new.

So when children at, at the edible schoolyard go out into the garden, they, they feel something.

Even parents going out in the garden, they feel something.

And when they eat something, when they have a fire they're close to the fire.

These things still mean something.

And when they get reconnected, they stay reconnected they change their habits.

(soft music playing) - So Allison's soil is really, really dark.

It looks really healthy.

What was it like when you started?

- We, we brought in so many loads of compost that you can't even imagine.

Oh.

And it was given to us by the city.

- Really?

- The city of San Francisco and of Berkeley but I mean semis of, of compost.

- Wow.

- To begin it and cover crops at first.

Okay.

Lots of fava beans and veg and the whole place was a big field.

- Seeing this green and vibrant garden in the middle of Berkeley, California, you would never imagine that this was once a forgotten and blighted acre.

(soft music playing) - Oh, I want some fennel.

- So there might be a few, but wait, we're not going to spend so much time trying to search, we'll find much more.

So if you want to turn it on.

Sound - Good?

So good.

Wow.

I think fennel's one of my favorite things.

- Boy, that's delicious.

It is delicious, isn't it?

Yeah.

- Alice Waters - Began her culinary career creating a restaurant that helped revolutionize and change the way we eat and cook.

And I'm fortunate to have had her as a mentor.

Seeing the excitement these students share as they harvest and taste and enjoy what they have grown is the true embodiment of an edible education.

(soft music) - I'm always surprised that I just, all kids love carrots.

- I know.

- You know.

Well, they're sweet.

They have that wonderful sweetness.

Right?

Did you try it yet?

- Every time I come here it just makes me understand that school can, can be this empowering, delicious experience and the kids can want to come to school.

- Yeah.

- Not push it away as some sort of detention.

And it's, it's very very moving to hear the kids talk about it.

- Right, right.

- Not just to watch them how they work but when they speak about it, they Yeah.

They're, they, they, they feel like it's their own.

Right, yeah.

This is their garden.

Yeah.

I wouldn't believe it, but I know it's true that there are 6,200 schools around the world.

- Oh, that's how many.

- that have taken this idea.

- 6,200 schools that are doing edible education.

And how many countries is that then?

- God, I don't know.

I know, but it's many, many, many including Saudi Arabia and Europe wide.

Oh wow.

The obvious ones like Italy and, and Japan and Scandinavia.

But Australia, no, there's it's amazing that people understand that what we're teaching are human values that we all share.

And so the idea that food is precious that it should be organically regeneratively grown that it's, it's the way that we communicate with each other at the table.

Yeah.

All of these things have been in the world since the beginning of time.

That it's just this 60, 70 years.

Right.

That we've been educated by a fast food industry.

Every choice we make has ramifications that can be really good or really bad for our health and for the planet.

So we have to eat with intention.

Eat with intention.

And you'll, I think everybody is rewarded when you do.

So that's the beauty of it.

You think it's going to be hard and it's not.

It's so easy.

(soft music) - Alice has done so much to advance the understanding and the importance of quality of food in this country and helping people connect with farmers rancher and appreciating the importance of the work they do.

As you know, chefs are nothing without the farmers.

Edible Schoolyard paved the way for so many organizations doing important work.

And so many children in this country are benefited from your effort.

I salute you Alice and all you do and I'm very happy that you are a good friend.

(soft music playing) - Alice Waters has been hugely influential in that farm to table and just really the ability to identify how we're working locally within our agricultural community.

But not only that, just seasonally you know, harvesting and and working pesticide free and Alice Waters really really helped lay all that groundwork down so we could be part of that movement.

(soft music playing) - I'm a Montessori teacher and I was trained in London in 1968.

And what is important about that is that she understood way back in the 1880s as the first woman doctor in Italy, that it was the education of the senses that brought information into your mind, the touching, the smelling, the tasting.

And she thought that the best way to learn is by doing.

And so that understanding became really my whole way of being in the world really.

So when I had this opportunity in a middle school in Berkeley to beautify it that's what the principal felt like I could do.

He invited me to look around the campus and then I had a whole vision, a Montessori vision for how to make a kitchen and a garden classroom.

Not for teaching, cooking and gardening per se but for teaching all the academic subjects.

And let me tell you it worked like a charm right from the beginning.

The kids were in this kitchen classroom and learning maybe the history of the Middle East and they were making pita bread and cooking greens and hummus.

And if they grew it and they cook it, they all eat it.

I think the richness of the Edible Schoolyard curriculum is that we have mined the cultures for what is really affordable and what kids love.

But again, if they get involved in making it, everyone loves it.

- What, so what grades are - Here?

So we have sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

- Sixth, seventh.

So it's middle school.

Okay.

Middle school.

- 11 to 14.

And there are a thousand kids at the school.

Right.

- That's a lot.

- It's a big school.

I want to show you the pizza oven.

- Oh good.

- We use this.

Well, this is a great story actually because this was built with a student who had come through the program and he was in college and he wanted to come back and do a project with the kids that were here.

- Wow - So he came during the summer and they built this and we use it every year.

Yeah.

In sixth grade students cook potatoes.

Okay.

In seventh grade they cook beets.

So we convert a lot of kids to beet lovers.

- Oh, that's so great.

- And then in eighth grade they get to make pizza which is sort of their celebratory, culminating activity.

- Oh yeah, yeah.

Sure.

- But they don't get to just make pizza.

They have to grow the grain.

They have to harvest the grain.

They have to winnow and thresh it.

They have to grind it to make the flour.

They have to make, have to grind - Have it - And everything they do.

How are they doing that?

Well, we study a few different ways.

They do it on a bicycle, so - They're peddling, peddling away.

And that's really the - Power.

Yeah.

Okay.

And they, it whizzes really fast and there's flour flying everywhere.

Yeah?

And someone is pouring the grain into the, into the top of it.

And then we also grind with a mortar and pestle.

Okay.

And then we also have a hand crank grinder.

And so we look at, you know, we study industrialization of food and the food system.

So we look at, you know, if you were trying to make pasta and all you had was the mortar and pestle.

- Right.

- How long would that take you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But if you have some kind of machine, then it gets easier - Right, yeah.

They have to do all of the steps in order to actually get to the pizza oven to make pizza.

- So when they're eating that pizza, Boy, they really appreciate it then.

- Yeah.

I remember the first time I ever had pizza out of this oven.

Yeah.

I'll never forget that time, you know?

- I know.

- You know, the crust is blackened and crunchy and it's perfect.

- Yeah, it's true.

- Planting grain, grinding wheat and making pizza gives these young people a valuable opportunity to understand where their food comes from.

- So the tool shed is a great, I love bringing people to come.

- Well, I have to say the the gloves themselves you got to see these gloves.

This is amazing.

The whole wall of gloves.

And they're all colorful and they just look so like you just want to put 'em on.

- I know.

So this demonstrates something that's so important about the program because we are trusting students to use real tools-- - Yes.

- -to do real work.

- Right.

- And they understand that they're being given responsibility.

- Right.

- They understand that they're doing something important and they take ownership of it.

- Right.

- We have a belief that, well there's two things.

One is that children are inherently capable and that you can give them opportunities for risk.

- Right.

- That is appropriate to their developmental age.

- Right.

- And that's a very important part of learning.

- I think what Alice did for this project was she she held the vision, she saw its potential.

She was able to immediately form a partnership with the principal at the school site and with the Center for Ecoliteracy.

And she didn't stop until it came to fruition.

And she still hasn't stopped.

She told everyone she knew about it.

And here we are telling its story still.

- One of the first grants we got was from the Center for Ecoliteracy that had started then in Oakland.

- When you say ecoliteracy, explain to me what you mean by that.

- It's about ecology and it's about understanding where your food comes from so you can support the people who take care of the land for the future.

And I was inspired by that for the edible schoolyard.

No question about it.

Because it's so important to feed the next generation the hope for their future.

And I can't think of any better way to do that than in the public school system.

The schools are supporting the farmer in the way that communities supported agriculture works so that you are paying the farmer man the real cost.

You're also really considering him or her first.

And so it is a way to really think about the purchasing of food for the public school system with care in mind.

I want that to be a real central part.

We are taking care of the farmers, the ranchers the fishers who are taking care of us who care about our nutrition, who care about climate.

So I want this to be a support system for them.

I mean, we can feed everybody in this country.

There shouldn't be anybody who's hungry ever.

And we should make farming something really meaningful.

Can you imagine growing food for a school?

What more meaningful work could you have that your food is feeding those children?

- What do you see in the future?

- Well, I have been thinking about this for a long time.

The idea that education is universal.

And that eating is, it's something we all do or should do.

Go to school and eat every day.

So isn't school the best place to make change?

The cafeteria of the schools?

So I thought, what if the federal government said we're going to reimburse school lunch if you buy that food locally, regeneratively, organically it would be an economic stimulus for every state in the country and around the world.

And then I remembered the University of California and how influenced I was by the time that I spent there in the sixties.

And I felt like if we all got together we could stop the war, we could create civil rights we could really change, make change together.

So I thought, what if the University of California changed its procurement at every campus?

What if they supported a group of farmers, ranchers, fishers, bread bakers everybody who wanted to produce food without pesticides and cared about the nutrition of what they were growing.

And I spoke with powers that be and I really feel like if they made this model (soft music playing) it would be heard across the country and around the world.

And in California it could be an amazing economic stimulus for the state.

(soft music playing) (light music)