As a student at Berkeley, I personally relate to this book by Alice Waters because I was there. I went there to her restaurant during those tumultuous years. I ate pizza with caramelized onions and goat cheese and perhaps, she inspired me to be the curious and enthusiastic eater and cook that I am today. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have.

Here's a summary. This memoir recalls the circuitous road and tumultuous times leading to the opening of what is may be America's most influential restaurant. In 1971, at 27 years old, she opened her "little French restaurant" in Berkeley, California. No one anticipated the indelible mark it would leave on the culinary landscape. Fueled in equal parts by naivete 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.

 

Alice retraces the events 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 deeply personal and understated reveal 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.