When I first went to Paris in 1965, I fell in love with the small, family-owned restaurants that existed everywhere then, as well as the markets and the French obsession with buying fresh food, often twice a day.
— Alice Waters
I guess I don't really believe in retirement. I believe in shorter days and maybe in weekends!
It's so important to that we go into the public schools and we feed all of the kids something that is really good for them.
We eat every day, and if we do it in a way that doesn't recognize value, it's contributing to the destruction of our culture and of agriculture. But if it's done with a focus and care, it can be a wonderful thing. It changes the quality of your life.
I really like having someone who knows about food and what goes well together make a meal for me.
If I've gone to the market on Saturday, and I go another time on Tuesday, then I'm really prepared. I can cook a little piece of fish; I can wilt some greens with garlic; I can slice tomatoes and put a little olive oil on. It's effortless.
It's hard to come into a new relationship with food unless you're engaged in an interactive way at an early age; it's hard to change your values.
I'm unwilling to eat food that has been adulterated.
Food can be very transformational, and it can be more than just about a dish. That's what happened to me when I first went to France. I fell in love. And if you fall in love, well, then everything is easy.
I don't think it ever works to tell people what they can't eat. They can do it for so long, and then they fall off. You have to bring them into a new relationship with food.
I eat meat, but no meat that isn't pastured is acceptable, and we probably need to eat a whole lot less.
I really appreciate the many neighbourhoods of Berkeley. There is still the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. And it has the University of California, which is the greatest gift, to my mind, to be close to it. It keeps the place alive.
Americans don't have deep gastronomic roots. They wanted to get away from the cultures of Europe or wherever they came from. We stirred up that melting pot pretty quickly.
When you don't have much money, cooking can be incredibly reassuring. You feel like you're doing meaningful work.
I am disappointed because nobody is talking about food and agriculture. They're talking about the diets of children, but they're talking about Band-Aids. We're not seeing a vision.
I think you have to plan ahead. When I go to the market on a Saturday, and I'm buying for family and friends, I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat on the weekend but also about what I'm going to make for the following week.
First, kids should be involved in the production of their own food. They have to get their hands in the dirt, they have to grow things. They also have to become sensually stimulated, and the way to begin is with a bakery.
I feel it is an obligation to help people understand the relation of food to agriculture and the relationship of food to culture.
I'm always changing my work, as there are endless ways to think about food.
You have to take it upon yourself and preserve and can foods that you'll want for the winter.
Food should be cheap, and labor should be cheap, and everything should be the same no matter where you go; whether it's a McDonald's in Germany or one in California, it should be the same. And this message is destroying cultures around the world. Needless to say, agriculture goes with it.
We've been so disconnected agriculturally and culturally from food. We spend more time on dieting than on cooking.
I think if you buy from people who are taking care of the land, you're supporting the future of this country.
I believe there should be breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack, all for free and for every child that goes to school. And all food that is good, clean and fair.
I came to all the realizations about sustainability and biodiversity because I fell in love with the way food tastes. That was it. And because I was looking for that taste I feel at the doorsteps of the organic, local, sustainable farmers, dairy people and fisherman.
I really am at a place where I think we need to feed every child at school for free and feed them a real school lunch that's sustainable and nutritious and delicious. It needs to be part of the curriculum of the school in the same way that physical education was part of the curriculum, and all children participated.
Grass-fed cattle are leaner. But it's not true that they are less flavorful.
The problem with living in a fast-food nation is that we expect food to be cheap.
To have a basic ingredient that can be prepared a million different ways is a beautiful thing.
Hard-boiled eggs are wonderful when they're really done right. I bring the water to a boil, and then I put in the eggs. And then I boil them for - well, it depends on the size of the egg - maybe eight minutes.
Food isn't like anything else. It's something precious. It's not a commodity.
I think health is the outcome of finding a balance and some satisfaction at the table.
Basically, the person in the White House should be principled, should have a philosophy about food that relates directly to organic agriculture. I will continue to push for that.
I just hope Americans come to understand that food isn't something to be manipulated by our teeth and shoved down our gullet, that it's our spiritual and physical nourishment and important to our well-being as a nation.
I think health is the outcome of eating well.
I feel like old age in America is a very sad thing. I have been many different places around the world where getting older is something you look forward to.
When you have good ingredients, cooking doesn't require a lot of instruction because you can never go very wrong.
It's around the table and in the preparation of food that we learn about ourselves and about the world.
Organize yourself so you aren't struggling to shop at the last minute. When you have real food, it's very easy to cook.
If we want children to learn to tend the land and nourish themselves and have conversations at the table, we need to communicate with them in ways that are positive.
I do feel like food should cost more, because we aren't paying farmers a living wage. It has to cost more.
I am an optimist of the first order.
I think America's food culture is embedded in fast-food culture. And the real question that we have is: How are we going to teach slow-food values in a fast-food world? Of course, it's very, very difficult to do, especially when children have grown up eating fast food and the values that go with that.
Everything tastes better with butter. Meat that has fat in it is tender in a certain way, flavorful in a certain way. It's hard to deny the flavor quotient there.
I try not to do anything that's immoral.
We have to bring children into a new relationship to food that connects them to culture and agriculture.
I love those tiny little onions in the spring that are so small they're almost like a little chive.
We need to have a course in school that teaches about ecology and gastronomy. I could imagine that all children could eat at school for free and that the cafeteria would become part of the school's curriculum.
I'm focused on the next generation, because I think it's very hard to break the habit of adults who've got salt and sugar addictions and just ways of being in this world. It's very hard even for the most enlightened people at famous universities that are very wealthy to spend the money that it takes to feed the students something delicious.
The decisions you make are a choice of values that reflect your life in every way.
