Chez Panisse

  1. Home
  2. Wiki

Chez Panisse
The words CHEZ PANISSE written in bold red Art Nouveau–style letters outlined in black, with pairs of dots framing the text and separating the two words
Brick steps lead up to the entrance of Chez Panisse, framed by a wooden archway and greenery
Front entrance.
Map
Restaurant information
Established1971 (1971)
OwnerAlice Waters
Food typeCalifornia
Location1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, Alameda County, California, 94709, United States
Coordinates37°52′46.49″N 122°16′8.46″W / 37.8795806°N 122.2690167°W / 37.8795806; -122.2690167
Websitechezpanisse.com

Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California, restaurant, known as one of the originators of California cuisine and the farm-to-table movement, opened and owned by Alice Waters. The restaurant emphasizes ingredients rather than technique and has developed a supply network of direct relationships with local farmers, ranchers, and dairies.

The main restaurant, located downstairs, serves a set menu that changes daily and reflects the season's produce.[1] An upstairs cafe offers an a la carte menu at lower prices.

History

[edit]

The restaurateur, author, and food activist Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971 with the film producer Paul Aratow, then a professor of comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley. It is named for a character in Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy [fr].[2][3] 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.

Victoria Wise was the first chef.[4][5] Waters and the restaurant began building up their network of local producers. Many of these local farmers, ranchers, and dairies continue to provide the restaurant with the majority of its ingredients today.[3][6] This approach was extremely innovative.[7] Later chefs de cuisine were Jeremiah Tower and Paul Bertolli and Jean-Pierre Moulle. The building was remodeled twice following fires in 1982 and 2013.[8]

Influences

[edit]
The Chez Panisse downstairs kitchen and dining room

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. 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.[9] Other influences included vineyard owners Lulu and Lucien Peyraud and the writings of Richard Olney and Elizabeth David.

Critical reception

[edit]

In 2001, Gourmet magazine named Chez Panisse the Best Restaurant in America.[10] 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.[a][b][c] 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.[13][14] 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.[15]

Culinary innovations

[edit]

Artwork and branding

[edit]

Berkeley designer and printmaker David Lance Goines has illustrated many of the Chez Panisse posters and defined the visual brand in the 1970s and 1980s.[19][20] The aesthetic for the brand was influenced by Ukiyo-e and the German Art Nouveau movement (German: Jugendstil).[20]

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.[21] Curtan published the book Menus for Chez Panisse (2011).[22][23]

Notable alumni

[edit]

Cookbooks

[edit]
  • Waters, Alice (1982). The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-51787-2.
  • Bertolli, Paul; Waters, Alice (1994). Chez Panisse Cooking. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-75535-7.
  • Shere, Lindsey Remolif (1994). Chez Panisse Desserts. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780679755715.
  • Waters, Alice (1996). Chez Panisse Vegetables. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-017147-6.
  • Waters, Alice (1999). Chez Panisse Café Cookbook. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-017583-2.
  • Waters, Alice (2002). Chez Panisse Fruit. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019957-9.
  • Waters, Alice; Curtan, Patricia; Labro, Martine (2011). Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-53094-9.
  • Waters, Alice (2011). 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers. ISBN 978-0-307-71826-6.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
Notes
  1. ^ Number 20 in 2006 and number 69 in 2010.[11]
  2. ^ Number 40 in 2007.[12]
  3. ^ Number 37 in 2008.[citation needed]
Citations
  1. ^ "About". Chez Panisse Restaurant. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  2. ^ Waters, Alice (1986). Foreword. My Father's Glory ; and, My Mother's Castle: Memories of Childhood. By Pagnol, Marcel. Translated by Barisse, Rita. San Francisco, CA: North Point Press. p. 7. ISBN 0-86547-256-4. p. 7: My partners and I decided to name our new restaurant after the widower Panisse, a compassionate, placid, and slightly ridiculous marine outfitter in the Marseille trilogy, so as to evoke the sunny good feelings of another world that contained so much that was incomplete or missing in our own—the simple wholesome good food of Provence, the atmosphere of tolerant camaraderie and great lifelong friendships, and respect for both the old folks and their pleasures and for the young and their passions.
  3. ^ a b McNamee, Thomas (2007). Alice Waters & Chez Panisse. The Penguin Press.
  4. ^ Tackeff, Sam. "Pig by the Tail". The Second Lunch. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  5. ^ "Victoria Wise". January 29, 2010. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  6. ^ "Our Friends". Chez Panisse. Archived from the original on July 12, 2010. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
  7. ^ "Fifty Years Ago, Berkeley Restaurant Chez Panisse Launched the Farm-to-Table Movement". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved November 6, 2021.
  8. ^ Tuan, Lydia (June 24, 2013). "Chez Panisse to Reopen Monday After March Fire". The Daily Californian. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  9. ^ "Chatting with Alice Waters: French Food Culture, Cooking for Kids and a Dressed-Up Grilled Cheese Sandwich". Food Network. Retrieved November 6, 2021.
  10. ^ "Alice Waters Biography". Starchefs.com. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
  11. ^ "The World's Best Restaurants. 2006". Restaurant magazine. William Reed Publishing Ltd. Archived from the original on May 30, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
  12. ^ "The World's Best Restaurants. 2007". Archived from the original on April 24, 2007. Retrieved April 24, 2007.
  13. ^ Finz, Stacy (October 24, 2007). "What's New: Who's in, Who's out in Second Michelin Guide". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 4, 2007.
  14. ^ Birdsall, John (October 27, 2010). "Michelin's Stripping Chez Panisse of Its Star No Ding on Alice". SF Weekly. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
  15. ^ "Alice Waters – 2007". Restaurant Magazine. William Reed Publishing Ltd. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
  16. ^ Lauriston, Robert (September 26, 2007). "Pizza Smackdown: SoCal Chain Goes Head to Head with Hometown Favorite". San Francisco Weekly. Archived from the original on December 25, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2007.
  17. ^ Severson, Kim (October 18, 2006). "For American Chèvre, An Era Ends". The New York Times.
  18. ^ "At Chez Panisse, It's Time for Tap Water". All Things Considered. NPR. March 22, 2007.
  19. ^ "David Lance Goines". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  20. ^ a b Guthmann, Edward (April 13, 2014). "Prince of Posters David Lance Goines Keeps His Hand In". SFGATE. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  21. ^ "Q&A: Chef Offers Inside Scoop on Roux40, a Soon-to-Open Oakland Restaurant Designed and Run by Women of Color". The Mercury News. October 1, 2021. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  22. ^ Sadlier, Darlene J. (August 9, 2019). The Lilly Library from A to Z: Intriguing Objects in a World-Class Collection. Indiana University Press. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-0-253-04269-9.
  23. ^ Curtan, Patricia (2011). Menus for Chez Panisse: The Art & Letterpress of Patricia Curtan. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-61689-029-2.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chez Panisse.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Berkeley, California.