Alice Waters Comes to Town
When culinary luminary and farm-to-table pioneer Alice Waters toured South Florida, she was the guest of honor at two dinners prepared by some of the area’s best chefs. But it was the schoolyard garden at G.W. Carver Elementary School (Little Carver) that brought tears to her eyes.
“These kids! I never expected this type of activism in Florida!” she said after touring the edible garden and being greeted with signs. “It was so wonderful.”
Waters is well known to chefs and home cooks for her restaurants, cookbooks and passion for sharing the joy of fresh, flavorful, ripe local produce. She opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, in 1971. A Montessori schoolteacher, Waters had spent time in France and was looking to recreate the experience of sharing local, seasonal food with family and friends. In 1995, she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, which now includes more than 6,500 schools worldwide in its network, aimed at using organic school gardens, kitchens and cafeteria to teach the values of nourishment, stewardship and community.
During her swing through South Florida, Waters, 80, was celebrated at a tribute dinner at Swank Farms in Loxahatchee. Guest chefs Allen Susser, Michael Beltran, Niven Patel and Hedy Goldsmith prepared a menu that included spicy cauliflower soup, marinated Italian eggplant, heirloom tomato and avocado salad, rock shrimp, pickled Swank Farm vegetables; and Florida black grouper.
Slow Food Miami then brought Waters to Coconut Grove for a planting session at their edible garden, one of many they sponsor, where she worked alongside students and the community to promote sustainable food education. There was lunch at one of Miami's first farm-to-table restaurants, Michael's Genuine. Later, she joined local food artisans and growers at an intimate meet-and-greet at Erba Miami.
Through the Edible Schoolyard Project, Waters provides hands-on experiences that connect students to food, nature, and each other, addressing the crises of climate change, public health and social inequality. “It’s going to take the next generation to educate parents,” she told us. “I’m dying to make school-supported agriculture work around the world.”
Waters’ approach to serving fresh, ripe food in season in her restaurants accounts in large part for her success. “I found taste when I found the farmer,” she said. Named Best Chef America by the James Beard Foundation in 1992 – the first woman to win the honor – Waters also received a National Humanities Medal during the Obama administration for her work inspiring a new generation to celebrate gardening, cooking and education, sparking inspiration in a new generation. She also inspired the Obama White House edible garden kitchen garden.
Locally, Waters plays a huge role galvanizing growers, educators and others. "She’s an important influence for what I and many others do in connection to children, gardens and nutrition," said Thi Squire, who manages Homestead Hospital's Grow2Heal Garden. "So many of us are able to do what we do because of her vision and passion."
After her whirlwind tour of South Florida, Waters is off to England to meet with King Charles, a longtime advocate of sustainability and educational projects like Food for the Future. Amid her travels and meetings with world leaders and global panelists on large-scale sustainability projects, Waters pointed out that individuals can make a difference, too.
“Grow your own food! Whether it’s in flowerpots or your courtyard, plant food wherever,” she said. “I think that’s the most important thing."
Waters’ new book, A School Lunch Revolution, will be published in fall 2025.
