photography: Amanda Marsalis
Alice Waters
Get Inspired! Learn more about the courageous people improving our food system. Edible Schoolyard Project | Berkeley, CA | EdibleSchoolyard.org The Ron Finley Project | Los Angeles, CA | RonFinley.com The Land Institute | Salina, KS | LandInstitute.org Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard | Bloomington, IN | MHCFoodPantry.org North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems | Minneapolis, MN | NATIFS.org
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edible INDY Summer 2018
country. The magazine invited many of the top chefs to New York City to cook a dish for this lavish party. Out of the 25 chefs, Waters was the only woman. And while the other chefs all prepared elaborate dishes—salmon quenelles, a lobster extravaganza—Waters made a simple mesclun salad. I can just imagine Waters, with her delicate frame, presenting her salad in front of a herd of competitive male chefs. The statement, however unintentional it may have been, was profound. Food doesn’t need to be complex to be delicious. What could be simpler than green salad? It’s all about freshness! In the first passage of her new book, Coming to My Senses, Waters talks about her attitude towards cooking: “First I’m at the farmers’ market. I am looking for fruits and vegetables that are perfectly ripe … things that were just picked. I’m not necessarily thinking about how the ingredients will go together—I’m just responding to what I’m finding … I’m using all of my senses … I don’t quite know what I’m going to cook … I’m improvising, trying to capture a moment in time.” Of course, this doesn’t exactly answer the question of how to save the world. There is no ONE thing that will fix everything. Although, perhaps beginning to rekindle our relationship with our farmers is the best place to start. Places like Chez Panisse are literally reshaping the food economy by creating pathways for local organic farmers to sell their produce, and although we cannot expect fine-dining restaurants to feed the world, we can walk in their wake. Chefs like Bloomington’s Erika Yochum, Nashville’s Jeremy Chase Barlow, Minneapolis’s Sean Sherman, Cambridge’s Will Turner and hundreds of other unsung local food heroes are doing this work around the country, finding the farmers and creating the pathways for a new food economy. Meanwhile, countless nonprofits (see sidebar) are bringing the skills of food production back to the general populace. As long as there are idealists out there, pushing to be the change they want to see, then little by little, the art of learning to cook and to eat intuitively will transform our food system for the better. To love food is to love the land. When we begin to immerse ourselves in the processes behind our food, not out of fear but out of love, change will come. Go ahead, taste and see. Francisca Figueroa was born in Indianapolis. She graduated from Indiana University with degrees in global food systems and Italian. She lives in Bloomington where she works as an artist and president of the nonprofit organization Journey Circle.
