Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook

Written by Alice Waters

Narrated by Alice Waters

The New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed memoir from cultural icon and culinary standard bearer Alice Waters recalls the circuitous road and tumultuous times leading to the opening of what is arguably America's most influential restaurant.
 
When Alice Waters opened the doors of her "little French restaurant" in Berkeley, California in 1971 at the age of 27, no one ever anticipated the indelible mark it would leave on the culinary landscape—Alice least of all. Fueled in equal parts by naiveté 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. In Coming to My Senses Alice retraces the events that led her to 1517 Shattuck Avenue and the tumultuous times 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 once deeply personal and modestly understated, a quietly revealing look 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9780525496489

Alice Waters

Alice Waters is the visionary chef and owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. She is the author of four cookbooks, including Chez Panisse Vegetables and Fanny at Chez Panisse. Known as the Queen of Local Food, she founded the Edible schoolyard at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. She lives in San Francisco.

Reviews for Coming to My Senses

[jilldugaw · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like this book. I greatly admire Alice Waters, and enjoy food memoirs, but this is, quite simply, not well written.

[mm_jones · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As a biography, I found this a strangely disjointed story. Too much miscellaneous detail and not enough on why one would want to read about this person. Somewhat enlightened when I saw credit to two collaborators in the afterward, it makes more sense as an interview. The other telling point is the author states she depends primarily on her intuition, not on working it out intellectually. It is much harder to convey intuition in writing. I'd recommend only to an Alice Waters fan.

[strandbooks_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't know how many cookbooks I've read or restaurants I've visited where they say they were inspired by Alice Waters. Her San Francisco restaurant Chez Panisse is famous for being one of the first to embrace local in season foods with a new menu every day. This memoir is about her childhood and adulthood ending the first night she opened the restaurant in 1971. She and her staff were completely self taught cooks. Throughout the book there are portions in italics of stories of her life running the restaurant. I would have loved to be friends with the young Alice as she camped throughout Europe and became friends with all sorts of artists in San Francisco. The older Alice seems somewhat neurotic with the way she runs the restaurant and even admits to no one else caring about the lighting or flowers in the way she does. Although I suppose that has been part of what has kept her restaurant open over 40 years.
I'd like to eat at Chez Panisse one day...or maybe the cafe.

[rglossne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alice Waters is one of the most important figures in 20th century American food. She is the founder, owner and executive chef of Chez Panisse, an influential restaurant in Berkeley, and a moving force for local, organic, sustainable food. Waters came of age in Berkeley at the height of the Free Speech movement in the 1960s, was strongly influenced by travel in France, and is a charming witness to some of the biggest changes in society in those years. The audiobook is read by the author.

[kayanelson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Alice Waters is a very interesting person. Kind of a hippie but then kind of not. Definitely creative--and never seemed to worry about money that much.