Culinary Revolution - Alice Waters

Alice Waters

Waters developed a new view of the importance of food during her first trip to France in 1965. She began to see that some of her peers deprived themselves of good food. Waters is known to believe that

"It’s not enough to liberate yourself politically, to liberate yourself sexually—you have to liberate all the senses." She believed that eating together was a socially progressive act, one that was under threat from the fifties American—TV, frozen-food culture.

Waters introduced to America many foods that today may seem commonplace, such as salads of mixed greens.

We were doing those very early on. I think lettuce was my first passion. I was bringing seeds over in the early seventies from France and planting 'em in my back yard, wanting a French kind of salad, with frisè and mâche. I'm sure I have contributed to the awful demise of the concept of mesclun, just by promoting it in many, many, many ways. And now, of course, one of those big companies has grabbed on to the idea, and they cut up big lettuces and put 'em in a bag, mix 'em up, and call 'em mesclun. Who is it—Dole pineapple or somebody?