A Delicious Revolution
Alice Waters Returns to Santa Barbara With Her Sustainability Movement
Written by Jennifer Blaise Kramer
Photographs by Sara Prince
Alice Waters has been spending significant time in Santa Barbara. It’s not just for the sunshine; it’s a full-circle moment for the chef to be visiting restaurants and ranches on the American Riviera, where she started her academic career at UCSB before transferring to Berkeley. That move altered her life, igniting a love for food and politics that would turn the student into a lifelong restaurateur, author, and activist.
“I was just having too much fun in Santa Barbara, and my friend said there’s something going on at Berkeley—let’s transfer. We walked right into the Free Speech Movement, and it changed my life. I really understood the power of a group of people who were committed to making change,” Waters says, adding that from a very tender age, activism was tied up with her love of food. “Then I went to France, and the rest is history.” Waters opened Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley in 1971. In 1995 she started the Edible Schoolyard Project, which fused her passions—food, education, and equality—and eventually created change.
“It’s extraordinary how one woman can plant a seed for an edible schoolyard and for that to grow and carry to feed children all over the world”
“I had a vision of how we could plant a garden over in a vacant lot and build the cafeteria on the asphalt and use these portable buildings for kitchen classrooms, but I never imagined teaching gardening or cooking,” she says. The concept caught on quickly, and kids loved cooking the food of, say, the Middle East while studying geography. “I understood again the power of food, the power of nature, to be outside where you can grow your own food, and how calculations in math class could help you plant seeds. It was hugely successful, but I didn’t know it was going to grow to 6,500 schools around the world,” she says.
Now celebrating 30 years of the Edible Schoolyard, Waters is shifting her focus to school lunches. School-supported agriculture is her current passion, bringing her to fund-raising events and farmers markets nationwide—in Washington, D.C., she recently won the Julia Child Award and Kamala Harris showed her around—to raise money and awareness. It’s a concept that could also make waves, benefiting both the students (by offering them healthier options and locally grown food) and the farmers (by boosting their economy).
“The idea is for the schools to buy directly from farmers, because when you buy directly, you leave out the middleman, and the farmer or the rancher gets the money,” says Waters, whose next book, School Lunch Revolution, will be published in 2025. “We did this at Chez Panisse, and I know it will stimulate local farming in a way that will build the community.”
In Santa Barbara, Waters met with farmers, growers, and thinkers, such as Mary Ta. She’s a kindred spirit who’s combining regenerative farming with biophilia (an expanded appreciation for nature) at her Skyfield Ranch, which boasts 80 acres of organic farmland in the Los Padres National Forest. Waters then ventured up to Santa Ynez, over to Lotusland, and downtown to the Saturday morning farmers market. “I just couldn’t believe the biodiversity of the produce, all different colors of raspberries, and children everywhere,” she says. She reunited with an organic farmer she knew in the ’60s and told him what she’s been up to, and he quickly volunteered to help.
“So many people in Santa Barbara care about the environment—I just might have to move back!” she says. “I love the proximity to the ocean, the care everybody feels to the land. And the whole UC system could be critical to this idea of school-supported agriculture. And what better place to do this than the whole state of California?”
The city showed up for Waters on one fall evening, when she captivated the community at a dinner hosted by sisters Belle Hahn and Lily Hahn Shining of the Twin Hearts Foundation. The event benefited the chef’s school-supported agriculture mission in Washington, D.C., where Waters hoped to raise awareness and bring some actual farmers to the tables where big changes take place.
“Everyone gave generously to the cause because of Alice. She is pure heart,” says Gina Andrews of Bon Fortune, who oversaw the garden party at a private estate in Montecito. In addition to arranging strategic lighting and decor, Andrews made thoughtful decisions that aligned with the chef’s philosophies. In lieu of florals, Truman Davies opted for vegetable centerpieces that wouldn’t distract from the food. Upon hearing of Waters’ love for sea urchins, Andrews got local commercial fisher Stephanie Mutz to bring the seafood, which the Gala restaurant team prepared for the party. And in true Waters fashion, Andrews made sure Mutz also had a seat at the table. “We wanted to tether that localism and celebrate our biodiversity and the gifts from the sea that make our area so rich,” Andrews says.
Guests also enjoyed heirloom tomatoes from Tutti Frutti Farms, pan-roasted Liberty duck, and Santa Barbara black cod with local wine pairings. “While every element of the decor was intentional and lovely, it was never about the design,” Andrews says. “The focus was on the food and honoring the people and sources that contribute to the message that Alice has championed for decades.”
“So many people in Santa Barbara care about the environment—I just might have to move back!”
Cohost Belle Hahn continues to be inspired by Waters. “Alice was a hero of mine from early childhood, as I believed that she was the original, all-time goddess of the slow-food movement,” says Hahn. “It’s extraordinary how one woman can plant a seed for an edible schoolyard and for that to grow and carry to feed children all over the world, including this mission now for school lunches and edible classrooms.” Hahn, who shares a passion for regenerative farming as executive producer of Feeding Tomorrow, bonded with the chef around creating opportunities where children can learn and grow.
“The education around regenerative agriculture and this shift back into the simple abundance of life is the catalyst of the delicious revolution Miss Waters talks about,” says Hahn. “And those are the waters that I want be a part of.”
