Chez Panisse

Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California restaurant known for using local, organic foods and credited as the inspiration for the style of cooking known as California cuisine. Well-known restauranteur, author, and food activist Alice Waters co-founded Chez Panisse in 1971 with film producer Paul Aratow, then professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. From the beginning, Waters advocated a style of cooking that uses the freshest, most delicious local food available, often prepared and presented simply and/or traditionally. The restaurant prides itself on relationships with producers, and buys through its established network of local farmers, ranchers, and dairies.

Chez Panisse has been listed by Restaurant magazine as one of the top 100 restaurants in the world for the last several years. From 2002 to 2008 it was one of the top fifty restaurants in the world, and was ranked number 12 in 2003. In 2007, Alice Waters won Restaurant Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award, and was cited as one of the most influential figures in American cooking over the past 50 years. Michelin awarded the restaurant a one-star rating in its guide to San Francisco Bay Area dining from 2006 through 2009. In 2001, Gourmet magazine named Chez Panisse the Best Restaurant in America.