Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Chez Panisse

Last Wednesday I had the honor of going to the Taj Mahal of restaurants, the Vatican of dining experiences, the ultimate foodie Mecca: Chez Panisse.

There are four simple principles behind why Chez Panisse is such a perfect restaurant:

1. Ingredients are relatively local. This is especially important these days because the high price of gas makes food that is transported long distances much more expensive. By supporting local farms and food producers, Chez Panisse helps to keep them in business, helping to avoid their take-over by large corporate agriculture. Also, delicious breeds of fruit and vegetables that don't do well in long-distance transport do not go extinct.

2. Local farms and food producers are glorified and respected. Farm and producer names are listed on the menu, where they recieve credit for the perfection of their product. This way, customers' awareness is raised without them having to ask. Farmers and food producers should be visible. If not, they are at risk of being overtaken and forgotten.

3. Ingredients are organic. It's pretty simple...pesticides are bad for us. Organic is better. Unfortunately it is also expensive to buy organic. There is a great book called "To Buy or Not to Buy Organic: What You Need to Know to Choose the Healthiest, Safest, and Most Earth-Friendly Food" by Cindy Burke that can help you sort through the trade-offs between buying organic and saving money. Organic won't become the norm and prices won't go down unless we the people demand it. Chez Panisse and the other restaurants buying organic and sustainable produce can help lead that change.

4. The food is awesome! No matter how honorable Chez Panisse's intentions, they would be nowhere if their food didn't taste good. Fortunately, it is delicious and imaginative. They have 2 chefs who split their year between Berkeley and France...what a life! There are also 2 pastry chefs and many assistants. Good job to everyone for creating such wonderful food!


You may say, "I see restaurants all over the Bay Area that go by the Local, Organic, Sustainable mantra. Why is Chez Panisse so idolized?" Well, as far as I know, they were the first restaurant to do it, and have been successful all these years. Chez Panisse is the reason that so many reastaurants in the Bay Area and all over the United States go by that mantra in the first place. 

Another restaurant to abide by these principles is Zuni Cafe, where I work. I can say first-hand that using local ingredients is a more sustainable, more fulfilling, more delicious way to work.

So now on to the good stuff: my dining experience! I went to Chez Panisse with three of my friends from culinary school: Haley, Sylvia, and Patricia.

Check out our blog at www.bakershalfdozen.blogspot.com. Patricia works in the pastry department at Chez Panisse so she was able to give us a tour of the kitchen. It is quite small! 

The food was great...we had a garlic pizzetta, spaghetti with Monterey Bay squid, sweet corn polenta, and halibut. But of course the highlight was dessert. We started with a bowl of Santa Rosa plums from Sunny Slope Orchard.


Then because Patricia works there, they brought us a special dessert: a puff pastry tart with Santa Rosa Plums and cardamom ice cream. The puff pastry was made there and it was perfectly crisp...not tough at all. Yum! 


After that, our server thought we would be satisfied. Little did he know that we can never get enough dessert! We also wanted to try something that Patricia had specifically made, so we ordered two more desserts: a summer berry cobbler


and peach leaf sherbet with boysenberry ice cream, fresh fruit, and a mexican wedding cookie.


Both were amazing. Good job Patricia! I was most intrigued by the peach leaf sherbet. They infuse cream or milk with peach leaves, but only for a few minutes. The leaves give a flavor like bitter almond, similar to the flavor of noyau. It was sooo good. We then got a bowl of fresh Mercy Wang apricots and Middleton Farm raspberries...perfection.

Our meal lasted 3 1/2 hours. It was wonderful to share such an experience with good friends!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it! Viva Alice! I wish I had your friends.

Unknown said...

I love it! Viva Alice! I wish I had your friends!

http://lastomach.wordpress.com/

Katie said...

That sounds wonderful!

I found out about the pancake contest at www.ismyblogburning.com. They feature a list of various blogging events. I check out the list every so often and read up on events that interest me.