I'd like to start with the sort of question that I would like to ask every
revolutionary who crosses this stage did you imagine us back in 1971 when you
opened Chez Panisse that it would have the effect on the world that it did
never imagined never imagined I just thought was going to be a dental
Berkeley restaurant and French definitely French but I thought that's
how I really show now today as you gaze across the restaurant landscape of the
united states do you ever think my god what have I done it if he's her ideas
that that I really took from my time in France when I was 19 and particular
culture but universal days growing things or organically sustainably in
with your family and friends
heating season delayed celebrating the harvest like being children and older
people are universal and i was just lucky that I am still work to all of
that when I was a student and very impressionable and I just I wanted to
live like the scratch I wanted to taste just like the one coming out of the oven
and a little French bakery and I had the better like that and I wanted to find
fresh to prop and I wanted to fight people salad that will come after them
here and I want it all and I wanted and all of that
and encouraging conversation at the table we had many dinners that we're
take long tables and everybody would be invited to sit together but I was card
the counter-culture I absolutely believe that a forest doing something that was
really tasty and good that people would come and never occurred to me and I was
thinking about making money Never I guess we didn't make any money that I
and my friends had to take care of me but ultimately did but never the first
concern was really collapsed trees also if you could tell us about nineteen
sixties it was before
fast food came to trance really was a time when there were markets on every
street corner and you had to go a second time and made a salad for dinner and I
talked about this restaurant and I went to a tiny place the French exclaiming
over the melon and the trouble I could and I tasted it differently and I found
out later that trout came from the stream right telling came from their
garden varies with the tart were in the preamble across the way and so I just
the store that I can to battle live also the moment how did you translate that to
Berkeley in 1975 I started going to the
ethnic markets looking for a kind of put your shop where ducks Whitney hanging
should be alive and attacking I thought well maybe this is where I could find
their true and then I ended up getting seeds from France the mask on so I
planted a garden the whole backyard my house we are here of course to champion
your new book my pantry which you or your daughter volume it's a guide to
building not just a well-stocked pantry but it delicious one filled with all
sorts of homemade pickles and vinegars and oils and cheeses like what was it
like working with your mom I live in England though this is really the
perfect excuse to spend more time together I mean I've lived in England
for nearly nearly 10 years and an excuse to get back to Berkeley to get my mom
over and I'm really is a is a worthy one and this was the first time since I was
eight when I nominally collaborating on the writing those in leadership that
we've really done something like this together so people are expecting that it
would have had more friction with a pretty a pretty harmonious collaboration
there's a really delightful quality to your striations fan work together to
discuss 12 in the house kitchen and then when I was back in England my mom with
son the iPhones now things around the kitchen and so actually very authentic
representation of what things look like so in that way quite an intimate but
there was really fun to do you said in the past that you doing as a ritual and
the business of putting food on tables for other people is not simply a
business it's not simply a pleasure it's more than that you said it's about
changing lives can you elaborate on that a little bit changed my life
and for the better and I've seen how the experience of working in the garden and
cooking here and get together with friends can really be transformational I
mean it can bring you back to your senses back to a kind of beauty of
nature and just having an everyday bridge will that kind of 35 sure it is
deeply a belief that I am trying to feed people like us if you will and I want
them to fall in love with whatever it is and say where did that come from I
thought I want to give her the cash I mean that's just that's the response
that i'm looking for quite recently the president himself honored you an award
at the white house and your remarks at the White House had agreed on about how
well we searched over and good food and teach them where it comes from
were nourishing more than their bodies and minds but democracy itself can you
talk about that but that came from France to free up so he said the destiny
of Nations depends on how they nourish themselves and I've really taken that to
heart of really understand what he's saying now and we are what we eat that
when we fast food where digesting more than the food itself may be unhealthy
were digesting the values that come with the food there were there were
understanding that that everything should be the same no matter where there
are no seasons that cooking is treasury
fast shipping easy that we can eat in our car
are that's ok and I think when you are winning her what you eating with
determination you were connecting with the community outside of yourself you're
connecting with farms you connecting with people at the bread the back of the
store and the person you're you're becoming dependent upon each other and
that's what democracy has power and it's learning to have a conversation at the
table with people that are really different from you I think learning past
he's teaching your generosity and here you're thinking about everybody has set
the table is there enough are there no fear I'll take a smaller amount so that
because round the table I mean he said that he's a democratic what's your first
memory of shape and he's I think it was probably sitting on the counter and the
pastry department getting frozen raspberries on my fingertips by the
pastry chef I like to think that I remember being put to sleep in a big
salad bowl when I was 10 months old but I don't think that's really where and
when are you happiest
with my daughter
blows right