Chez Panisse is a
BerkeleyBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
restaurant known as the birthplace of
California cuisineCalifornia Cuisine is a style of cuisine marked by an interest in "fusion" – integrating disparate cooking styles and ingredients – and in the use of freshly prepared local ingredients....
, a style credited to its co-founder,
Alice WatersAlice Louise Waters is an American chef and co-owner of Chez Panisse, the original "California Cuisine" restaurant in Berkeley, California, as well as the informal Café Fanny in West Berkeley...
.
The restaurant is located in the north Berkeley neighborhood known locally as the "
Gourmet ghettoThe Gourmet Ghetto is the colloquial name for a neighborhood in the city of Berkeley, California. The neighborhood is sometimes more formally referred to as "North Shattuck"...
". Chez Panisse has been listed by
Restaurant magazineRestaurant is a British magazine aimed at chefs, restaurant proprietors and other catering professionals that concentrates on the fine dining end of the industry. It produces an annual list of what it considers to be the best 50 restaurants, based on the votes of 600 "chefs, restaurateurs, critics...
from 2006 to 2008 as one of the top fifty restaurants in the world. In 2006 and 2007,
MichelinThe Michelin Guide is a series of annual guide books published by Michelin for over a dozen countries. The term refers by default to the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest and best-known European hotel and restaurant guide, which awards the Michelin stars...
awarded the restaurant a one-star rating in its guide to San Francisco Bay Area dining.
Named after a character in a
Marcel PagnolMarcel Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. In 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie Française.-Biography:...
film trilogy, Chez Panisse grew out of Waters' interest in the possibilities of using fresh, locally grown ingredients, inspired by her 1965 visit to France, where she ostensibly went to study at the
SorbonneThe name Sorbonne is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions , but this is a recent usage, and "Sorbonne" has actually been used with different meanings over the centuries...
but was seduced by the cuisine.
Chez Panisse is a
BerkeleyBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
restaurant known as the birthplace of
California cuisineCalifornia Cuisine is a style of cuisine marked by an interest in "fusion" – integrating disparate cooking styles and ingredients – and in the use of freshly prepared local ingredients....
, a style credited to its co-founder,
Alice WatersAlice Louise Waters is an American chef and co-owner of Chez Panisse, the original "California Cuisine" restaurant in Berkeley, California, as well as the informal Café Fanny in West Berkeley...
.
The restaurant is located in the north Berkeley neighborhood known locally as the "
Gourmet ghettoThe Gourmet Ghetto is the colloquial name for a neighborhood in the city of Berkeley, California. The neighborhood is sometimes more formally referred to as "North Shattuck"...
". Chez Panisse has been listed by
Restaurant magazineRestaurant is a British magazine aimed at chefs, restaurant proprietors and other catering professionals that concentrates on the fine dining end of the industry. It produces an annual list of what it considers to be the best 50 restaurants, based on the votes of 600 "chefs, restaurateurs, critics...
from 2006 to 2008 as one of the top fifty restaurants in the world. In 2006 and 2007,
MichelinThe Michelin Guide is a series of annual guide books published by Michelin for over a dozen countries. The term refers by default to the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest and best-known European hotel and restaurant guide, which awards the Michelin stars...
awarded the restaurant a one-star rating in its guide to San Francisco Bay Area dining.
Inspirations and history
Named after a character in a
Marcel PagnolMarcel Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. In 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie Française.-Biography:...
film trilogy, Chez Panisse grew out of Waters' interest in the possibilities of using fresh, locally grown ingredients, inspired by her 1965 visit to France, where she ostensibly went to study at the
SorbonneThe name Sorbonne is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions , but this is a recent usage, and "Sorbonne" has actually been used with different meanings over the centuries...
but was seduced by the cuisine. A trip to the south of France that spring, with its cooking based on fresh herbs, vegetables and olive oil, would prove especially influential, as would a visit to
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Brittany was previously a kingdom and then as a duchy it was a fief of the Kingdom of France. It was at one time called Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, where she ate fresh mussels and buckwheat crêpes and dined at a small restaurant in an old stone house that crystallized her sense of what good food could be. Waters was influenced less by grand Parisian restaurants that served a predictable menu than by more modest establishments whose chefs visited the markets each day and invented the meal on the spot.
La cuisine du marché, market cooking, relies on improvisation and experimentation and puts shopping on an equal footing with technique.
After Waters returned to Berkeley, she cooked for friends by combining French cooking techniques with ingredients grown nearby and in season, rather than imported or frozen. She co-founded the restaurant in 1971 with Paul Aratow, who taught comparative literature at the University of California and had lived extensively in France. He planned the reconstruction of an old Berkeley apartment house, supervised the construction of the restaurant, managed the kitchen and "back-of-house" and was the original chef de cuisine. Aratow derived his extensive knowledge of cooking from the classic French cookbook,
La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-AngeLa bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange is a French cookbook written by Evelyn Ébrard and published in 1927 by Larousse...
, which he translated into English years later (Ten Speed Press). Aratow sold his share of Chez Panisse after a few years when he moved to Los Angeles to become a film producer.
Waters wrote in 1980:
Chez Panisse now consists of a downstairs restaurant serving a daily fixed-price dining menu and an upstairs cafe with a less expensive menu and a more informal atmosphere. With the restaurant's fame, the cafe has come to embody Waters' original idea for Chez Panisse as a place to hang out with friends.
Over the years, Waters' role at Chez Panisse has been that of proprietor and taster-in-chief, rather than chef or businesswoman. Biographer Thomas McNamee has characterized the restaurant's history as bipolar, with triumphs alternating with disasters leading to more successes. This cycle could be seen in the aftermath of a March 1982 fire that came within 10 minutes of destroying the building. Influenced by the book
A Pattern LanguageA Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is a 1977 book on architecture. It was authored by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein of the Center for Environmental Structure of Berkeley, California, with writing credits also to Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and...
, Waters collaborated with co-author
Christopher AlexanderChristopher Alexander is an architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world...
on a redesign that removed the partially burned wall previously separating the kitchen from the dining room. Today, the former is clearly viewable from the latter, and diners interested in the kitchen and its cooking are often invited in. Famous diners include the Dalai Lama and President
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
. With the help of Alice Waters, filmmaker
Werner HerzogWerner Herzog is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director....
cooked his shoe at Chez Panisse, eating it at the nearby
UC TheaterThe UC Theater was a movie theater in Berkeley, California on University Avenue near Shattuck Avenue in the United States of America. Opened in 1917, the 1,300 seat theater was acquired in 1974 by theater owner Gary Meyer as one of the first theaters in his Landmark Theatres chain. The theater had...
before the premier of the film
Gates of HeavenGates of Heaven is a 1978 documentary film by Errol Morris about the pet cemetery business. It was made when Morris was unknown and did much to launch his career.-Description:...
, an event recorded in the documentary
Werner Herzog Eats His ShoeWerner Herzog Eats His Shoe is a short documentary film directed by Les Blank in 1980 which depicts director Werner Herzog living up to his promise that he would eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed the film Gates of Heaven....
.
Legacy
Beyond its broad influence on American cuisine, Chez Panisse is directly responsible for the success of many prominent chefs and the founding of a number of notable food-related businesses.
- Acme Bread Company
The Acme Bread Company is a Berkeley, California-based bakery that is one of the pioneers of the San Francisco Bay Area's "Bread Revolution", which in turn created the modern "artisan bread" movement in America, and remains a "benchmark" for commercial handmade bread.-Bread in San Francisco:There...
, a pioneer of the artisan bread movement and the restaurant's bread supplier, whose founder was the restaurant's first in-house baker from 1979-1983.
- Dianne Dexter, founder of Artisan baker Metropolitan Bread Company, was Pastry Chef
A pastry chef or pâtissier is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, and bakeries....
at Chez Panisse.
- Head chef Jeremiah Tower
Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Wolfgang Puck and Alice Waters, is generally credited with developing the culinary style known as California cuisine.-Biography:...
, whose first professional cooking job was at Chez Panisse, later opened the landmark StarsStars was a landmark restaurant in San Francisco, California from 1984 through 1999. Along with Spago, Michael's and Chez Panisse it is considered the birthplaces of California Cuisine, New American cuisine, and the institution of the celebrity chef....
and is along with Waters and Wolfgang PuckWolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian celebrity chef, restaurateur, and businessman based in Los Angeles...
credited with inventing California Cuisine.
- Mark Miller
Mark Miller may refer to:* Mark Miller , television actor and producer, also father of Penelope Ann Miller* Mark Miller * Mark Miller , lead singer and founder of the band Sawyer Brown...
, chef after Jeremiah Tower, left for Berkeley's Santa Fe Bar and Grill, then later opened the Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New MexicoSanta Fe is the capital of the state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 62,203 at the April 1, 2000 census; the estimate for July 1, 2006, is 72,056...
as the first of a string of Southwestern-themed restaurants throughout the United States, including a Coyote Cafe in Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
and Red Sage in Washington, DC.
- Paul Bertolli
Paul Bertolli is a chef, writer, and artisan food producer in the San Francisco Bay area of California. Until mid-2005, he was the executive chef of the Oliveto restaurant in Oakland, California...
, Chef from 1982-1992, was executive chef of Oliveto in Oakland, CaliforniaOakland is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of California and a major West Coast port city, located on San Francisco Bay about eight miles east of the City of San Francisco. Oakland is a major hub city for the Bay Area subregion collectively called the East Bay, and it is the county seat...
from 1993 until 2005 before forming Fra' Mani, a maker of Salumi for wholesale and retail sales.
- Chez Panisse alumni Richard Mazzera, Dennis Lapuyade, and Stephen Singer, who in 1998 founded César, a popular tapas
Tapas is the name of a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold or warm ....
restaurant next door
- Judy Rodgers and Gilbert Pilgram, the two chef-owners of Zuni Cafe
is a well-known Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco, California. Named after an Indian Tribe, it was established in 1979 by Billy West, and with chef Judy Rodgers it is located on Market Street. Judy Rogers has been with Zuni "since 1987 as chef and co-owner" and "Gilbert Pilgram joined...
in San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
, are both alumni of Chez Panisse.
- Deborah Madison, who worked with Judy Rodgers at lunchtime, later opened Greens Restaurant
Greens Restaurant is a landmark vegetarian restaurant in the Fort Mason Center in the Marina District, San Francisco, California, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge....
and became a cookbook star.
- Lindsey Remolif Shere, pastry chef from the restaurant's founding until her retirement in 1997, along with daughter Thérèse, and friend Kathleen Stewart (also of Chez Panisse), opened Downtown Bakery and Creamery in Healdsburg, California
Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, California, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 10,722. The town is a commercial center for northern Sonoma County as well as being one of Northern California's wine capitals: three of Sonoma's most important wine-producing...
in 1987.
- Peggy Smith ran the cafe at Chez Panisse from 1980 to 1997, before leaving to form Cowgirl Creamery, maker of cheeses including Red Hawk
Red Hawk is a triple-crème cow's milk cheese with a brine washed rind. This cheese is made by Cowgirl Creamery in California. It was awarded "Best in Show" at the 20th annual conference of the American Cheese Society....
, as well as a cheese retailer in the Bay Area and Washington, DC.
- Jonathan Waxman, after getting his start at Chez Panisse, opened Michael's in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a city in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the...
, Buds, Hulot's, Washington Park, and Barbuto in New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
(where he partnered with and mentored future Food NetworkFood Network is a television specialty channel that airs specials and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns roughly two thirds of the network, and Tribune Company owns the rest....
star Bobby FlayRobert William "Bobby" Flay is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, Iron Chef, and television personality. He is the owner and executive chef of nine restaurants: Mesa Grill in New York City; Bar Americain in New York City; Mesa Grill in Las Vegas; Mesa Grill in The Bahamas ; Bobby Flay Steak...
), Jams in London, England, and Table 29 in Napa, CaliforniaNapa is the county seat of Napa County, California. It is the principal city of the Napa county Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Napa county. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 72,585. The area was settled in the 1830s...
.
- Mary Canales, former pastry chef, owns and operates Ici, a gourmet ice creamery in Berkeley, CA.
- Suzanne Goin
Suzanne Goin is a chef and restaurateur from Los Angeles, California. As a restaurateur, she runs four restaurants in the Los Angeles area: The A.O.C., Lucques, and Tavern, which she runs with partner Caroline Styne, and The Hungry Cat, where she shares duties with her husband, David Lentz...
, owner of AOC, Lucques and The Hungry Cat in Los Angeles.
Other alumni who went on to become chef-owners of renowned restaurants include Charlie Hallowell, chef-owner of local pizza restaurant Pizzaiolo, Michael Tusk of Quince, Mary Jo Thoresen of Jojo, Gayle Pirie of Foreign Cinema, Christopher Lee of Eccolo, Joyce Goldstein of Square One, Amaryll Schwertner of Boulettes Larder, Alison Barakat of Bakesale Betty's, and Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain of Camino in Oakland, all in the
San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Yay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and...
, and Mark Peel of Campanile Restaurant in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
. In addition, April Bloomfield, the head chef of The Spotted Pig in New York City, cooked for a time at Chez Panisse.
Culinary innovations
- California-style pizza
California-style pizza is a style of single-serving pizza that combines New York and Italian thin crust with toppings from the California Cuisine cooking style. Wolfgang Puck popularized this style of pizza...
, which later became an international staple of fast foodFast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with low quality preparation and served to the customer in a packaged form...
, frozen dinners, and restaurant chains, was invented at the cafe in 1980.
- Goat Cheese Salad: first offered in the late 1970s, the chèvre rounds were coated in bread crumbs and baked, then served with mesclun
Mesclun is a salad mix of assorted small, young salad leaves which originated in Provence France. The traditional mix includes chervil, arugula, leafy lettuces and endive in equal proportions, but in modern iterations may include an undetermined mix of fresh and available lettuces, spinach,...
.
- In-house carbonated tap water: this filtered version of the East Bay Municipal Utility District
East Bay Municipal Utility District , colloquially referred to as "East Bay Mud" , provides water and sewage treatment for customers in portions of Alameda County and Contra Costa County in California, on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay .The district was founded after a severe drought in 1923...
offering first replaced conventional bottled water at the restaurant in summer 2006.
External links