Alice Waters is an American chef, restaurateur, food writer, and author, recognized for her foundational role in the farm-to-table movement and extensive advocacy for organic food and edible education. After opening Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California in 1971, Alice Waters quickly established the restaurant as a seminal institution in American culinary history. Chez Panisse pioneered the farm-to-table movement and California cuisine by exclusively sourcing fresh, local, seasonal, and organic ingredients, with Waters celebrating her network of local farmers by listing their names on her menus. She expanded her culinary ventures with the Chez Panisse Café in 1980 and Café Fanny in 1984, further solidifying her influence on sustainable dining.

She has served as a vice president of Slow Food International since 2002 and helped create the Yale Sustainable Food Project in 2003, overseeing the creation of the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome in 2006. Her continued dedication earned her the James Beard Foundation Award for Humanitarian of the Year in 1997, Lifetime Achievement in 2004, and a Leadership Award in 2011. Her influence has garnered significant national and international recognition, including The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Waters was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2008, and received the French Legion of Honor in 2009.

In late 2021, she partnered with the Hammer Museum to open Lulu, her second restaurant, further extending her culinary vision. Concurrently, she launched the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education out of the University of California, Davis, in late 2021/early 2022, which focuses on regenerative agriculture and climate change. Waters continues to champion universal access to healthy food, working to reform school lunch programs and advancing the ‘delicious revolution.’