Alice Waters opened her iconic Berkeley, California restaurant Chez Panisse 54 years ago, introducing the concept of farm-to-table eating to Americans and only serving local, seasonal produce at peak ripeness. She’s also a food activist, and through The Edible Schoolyard Project, has spent the past 30 years showing schools how to integrate locally farmed, organic produce into their cafeterias. On today’s episode, Alice shares two life-changing experiences that inspired her to open her restaurant; what diners thought about being served two figs for dessert in Chez Panisse’s early days; how schools can afford to serve kids farm fresh food; and what she packed in her own daughter’s lunchbox. And we take a peak inside her her new cookbook, A School Lunch Revolution. Then the Director of Nutrition Services for California’s Sweet Water Union High School district joins the show to talk about how he flipped the district’s lunch program on its head, buying more than half of the food from local farmers and producers or having the students grow it themselves. Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media! Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle. Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings. Follow along on Instagram. Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. Support Cascade PBS: https://secure.cascadepublicmedia.org/page/133995/donate/1/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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