Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook

· Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Alice Waters
Audiobook
8 hr 59 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

The New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed memoir from cultural icon and culinary standard bearer Alice Waters recalls the circuitous road and tumultuous times leading to the opening of what is arguably America's most influential restaurant.
 
When Alice Waters opened the doors of her "little French restaurant" in Berkeley, California in 1971 at the age of 27, no one ever anticipated the indelible mark it would leave on the culinary landscape—Alice least of all. Fueled in equal parts by naiveté and a relentless pursuit of beauty and pure flavor, she turned her passion project into an iconic institution that redefined American cuisine for generations of chefs and food lovers. In Coming to My Senses Alice retraces the events that led her to 1517 Shattuck Avenue and the tumultuous times that emboldened her to find her own voice as a cook when the prevailing food culture was embracing convenience and uniformity.  Moving from a repressive suburban upbringing to Berkeley in 1964 at the height of the Free Speech Movement and campus unrest, she was drawn into a bohemian circle of charismatic figures whose views on design, politics, film, and food would ultimately inform the unique culture on which Chez Panisse was founded. Dotted with stories, recipes, photographs, and letters, Coming to My Senses is at once deeply personal and modestly understated, a quietly revealing look at one woman's evolution from a rebellious yet impressionable follower to a respected activist who effects social and political change on a global level through the common bond of food.

About the author

Chef and restauranteur Alice Waters was born April 28,1944, in Chatham, New Jersey. She attended University of California at Berkeley where she earned a degree in French Cultural Studies. She has been the owner of the Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California for almost three decades. She is the author of The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook, and Chez Panisse Vegetables. She also wrote a memoir entitled Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook. Waters collaborated with others chefs and a cardiologist to produce Heart-Healthy Cooking for All Seasons. Her awards include the Bon Appetit magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award, Restaurant and Business Leadership Award, Restaurants & Institutions Magazine and the James Beard Humanitarian Award. She was named Best Chef in America by the James Beard Foundation in 1992 and was listed as one of the ten best chefs in the world by Cuisine et Vins de France.

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