Chez Panisse is a

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, restaurant, known as one of the originators of the style of cooking known as

California cuisine California cuisine is a food movement that originated in California. The cuisine focuses on dishes that are driven by local and sustainable ingredients with an attention to seasonality and an emphasis on the bounty of the region. The food is hi ...

, and the

farm-to-table Farm-to-table (or farm-to-fork, and in some cases farm-to-school) is a social movement which promotes serving local food at restaurants and school cafeterias, preferably through direct acquisition from the producer (which might be a winery, brewer ...

movement. The restaurant emphasizes ingredients rather than technique and has developed a supply network of direct relationships with local farmers, ranchers and dairies. The main, downstairs restaurant serves a set menu that changes daily and reflects the season's produce. Prices vary with the day of the week, and as of 2020 range from $75 to $125. An upstairs cafe offers an a la carte menu at lower prices.

History

The restaurateur, author and food activist

Alice Waters Alice Louise Waters (born April 28, 1944) is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 1971 she opened Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its role in creating the farm-to-table movement and for pioneering Californi ...

opened Chez Panisse in 1971 with the film producer Paul Aratow, then a professor of

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

at the University of California, Berkeley. It is named for a character in a trilogy of

Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionabl ...

films.''Alice Waters & Chez Panisse'', Thomas McNamee, The Penguin Press, 2007. They set up the restaurant and its menu on the principle that it was of primary importance to use food that was fresh and in season, grown locally, organically and

sustainably Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...

. They deemphasized low prices and making available a variety of products unrelated to the season of the year, which is incompatible with growing food locally. Because the ingredients were procured locally in California, the food to some degree took on a very Californian character, hence helping create California cuisine. Victoria Wise was the first chef. Due to Waters' insistence on using the highest-quality ingredients available regardless of cost, coupled with her lack of experience in the restaurant business, Chez Panisse struggled financially for many years. The restaurant also gained a reputation for its staff's partying and illegal drug use. Nonetheless, Waters and the restaurant began building up their network of local producers, which continues to provide the restaurant with the majority of its ingredients today. The restaurant continues to procure its ingredients from a network of local farmers, ranchers and dairies. This approach was extremely innovative. Later chefs de cuisine were

Jeremiah Tower Jeremiah Tower (born 1942) is an American celebrity chef who, along with Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, has been credited with pioneering the culinary style known as California cuisine. A food lover from childhood, he had no formal culinary ...

and Paul Bertolli and Jean-Pierre Moulle. The building was remodeled twice following fires in 1982 and 2013.

Influences

The culinary influences for Chez Panisse were largely French, inspired by the 1920s cookbook of French ''cuisine bourgeoise'', ''

La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange ''La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange'' is a French cuisine, French cookbook written by Marie Ébrard under the name E. Saint-Ange and published in 1927 by Éditions Larousse, Larousse. A "classic text of French home cooking", it is a highly ...

''. This book has been translated into English by Paul Aratow, who was also the first chef de cuisine at Chez Panisse. Waters, who had been an exchange student in France in the early 1960s, was influenced by French food-related values and customs, including buying local produce and frugality in avoiding waste. Other influences included vineyard owners Lulu and Lucien Peyraud and the writings of

Richard Olney Richard Olney (September 15, 1835 – April 8, 1917) was an American statesman. He served as United States Attorney General in the cabinet of Grover Cleveland and Secretary of State under Cleveland. As attorney general, Olney used injunct ...

and

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...

Critical reception

In 2001, ''

Gourmet Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, of ...

'' magazine named Chez Panisse the Best Restaurant in America. From 2002 to 2008 it was ranked by ''Restaurant'' magazine as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world and was ranked number 12 in 2003. Michelin awarded the restaurant a one-star rating in its guide to San Francisco Bay Area dining from 2006 through 2009, but the restaurant lost its star in 2010. In 2007, Alice Waters won Restaurant Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award, and was cited as one of the most influential figures in American cooking over the past 50 years. A 2019 review by San Francisco Chronice food critic Soleil Ho praised the fruit bowl, but complained that the servers couldn't answer questions about the food and that some dishes were "acid" or "acrid." She compared the recent evolution of the restaurant to the way that "revolutionary movements fizzle out."

Culinary innovations

* The aforementioned emphasis on farm-to-table and California cuisine. * ''

California-style pizza California-style pizza (also known as California pizza) is a style of single-serving pizza that combines New York and Italian thin crust with toppings from the California cuisine cooking style. Its invention is generally attributed to chef E ...

'', baked in an in-house pizza oven and topped with a variety of local ingredients, was created at the cafe in 1980. * ''Goat Cheese Salad'': first offered in the late 1970s, the salad contains rounds of

chèvre Goat cheese, or chèvre ( or ; from French ''fromage de chèvre'' 'goat cheese'), is cheese made from goat's milk. Goats were among the first animals to be domesticated for producing food. Goat cheese is made around the world with a variety of ...

marinated in olive oil and herbs, coated in bread crumbs, and baked, served with lightly dressed

mesclun Mesclun () is a mix of assorted small young salad greens that originated in Provence, France. The traditional mix includes chervil, arugula, leafy lettuces and endive, while the term ''mesclun'' may also refer to a blend that might include s ...

. * ''In-house carbonated tap water'': this filtered version of the

East Bay Municipal Utility District East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), colloquially referred to as "East Bay Mud", is a public utility district which provides water and sewage treatment services for an area of approximately in the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay. ...

offering first replaced conventional bottled water at the restaurant in summer 2006.

Art of Chez Panisse

Berkeley designer and printmaker

David Lance Goines David Lance Goines (born 1945) is an American artist, calligrapher, typographer, printing entrepreneur, and author. He was born in Grants Pass, Oregon, the oldest of eight children. His father was a civil engineer and his mother a calligrapher and ...

has illustrated many of the Chez Panisse posters and defined the visual brand in the 1970s and 1980s. The aesthetic for the brand was influenced by

Ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...

and the German Art Nouveau movement (German: Jugendstil). Patricia Curtan has been the designer and artist of many of the menus and some of the cookbooks for Chez Panisse, which were created as linocut prints. Curtan published the book ''Menus for Chez Panisse'' (2011).

Notable alumni

References

External links

*
The Green Gourmets: The Evolution of Chez Panisse

Guide to the Chez Panisse Records

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California Companies based in Berkeley, California Restaurants in Berkeley, California Restaurants established in 1971 Cuisine of the San Francisco Bay Area Culture of Berkeley, California 1971 establishments in California James Beard Foundation Award winners