Update: This article is now online.
In the beginning, there was Alice Waters. So goes the standard history of the Berkeley food revolution that shapes the modern American culinary scene. But Alice Waters did not beam down from the U.S.S. Enterprise. For my latest Edible East Bay piece (Summer 2006), I wrote about the context that made Berkeley a prime location for the revolution she led. Politics, protests, Hippies, environmentalism, France, money, co-ops, bohemian lifestyles. They provided the canvas for Chez Panisse's art.
Or, as I told my editor, most of these pieces start with Alice Waters, mine ends with her.
I had a lot of fun with this article, and I think it's one of my better features, partly because of my active efforts to improve my writing. I trace my food philosophy and political stance to that point in Berkeley's history, and I loved hearing the stories my interviewees told me.
If you're in the Bay Area, this issue of the magazine should be in East Bay stores and at farmer's markets in the next week or so. Look for the pretty David Lance Goines cover art. Or, you can subscribe and ensure that the magazine arrives on your doorstep with no effort on your part.
