BookBook Club Presents: Coming to My Senses

From the organizers:

We are very excited to announce our second pick for the new Book Club series. Every six-ish weeks we will read a new memoir, collection of essays, novel, or anything else we find interesting that somehow, in a big or small way, relates to food. Our next pick is Coming to My Senses by Alice Waters, a book we are excited to cozy with this winter.

When Alice Waters opened the doors of her “little French restaurant” in Berkeley, California, in 1971 at the age of 27, no one ever anticipated the indelible mark it would leave on the culinary landscape – Alice least of all. Fueled in equal parts by naiveté and a relentless pursuit of beauty and pure flavor, she turned her passion project into an iconic institution that redefined American cuisine for generations of chefs and food lovers.

In Coming to My Senses, Alice retraces the events that led her to 1517 Shattuck Avenue and the tumultuous times that emboldened her to find her own voice as a cook when the prevailing food culture was embracing convenience and uniformity. Moving from a repressive suburban upbringing to Berkeley in 1964 at the height of the free speech movement and campus unrest, she was drawn into a bohemian circle of charismatic figures whose views on design, politics, film, and food would ultimately inform the unique culture on which Chez Panisse was founded.

There will be lots-o-free-cheese and wine for sale!