- December 8th, 2008
- Filed under The Toby
The restaurateur, chef and food educator Alice Waters swooped into Indianapolis last Tuesday. In 36 hours, she visited students at Cold Spring Middle School, dined at Puck’s with three local chefs, reconnoitered with 30 Ivy Tech Culinary Students, took a rapturous tour of the IMA galleries of contemporary art, signed 100 books, and engrossed the 540 people who packed The Toby to hear her speak.
She covered all the points you’d expect from a sustainable food advocate: the health crimes of fast food, the shame that many urban children have no idea where their food comes from, the lack of time for experiencing food.
But then she turned to the power of tablecloths. In her work with schools gardens (a.k.a. Edible Schoolyards, the subject of her new book), she noted that children flock to a table with a tablecloth. The kids recognize a well-set table as a sign of love and care.
She also addressed olive oil, equating good oil with life quality. This is a woman who carries her own olive oil with her when she travels. Lest her connoisseurship smack of elitism, Alice assured the crowd that quality-intense food pleasures like these are available at any farmers market across the land.
But just when you think she’s a charming spokesperson for edible beauty…she roars. She told the crowd of her daughter’s admission to Yale University, and their introduction to the college president Richard Levin. Alice twisted his arm, and showed him the light, encouraging him to leverage Yale’s food buying power to develop a local food program at Yale. Seven years later, the Yale Sustainable Food Project is going strong, complete with campus garden and a café with a sustainable menu.
True to her crusading ways, Alice didn’t leave Indy until she had dinner with IMA CEO Maxwell Anderson and several museum donors, which she took as an opportunity to inquire about the IMA’s food service, noting her disappointment with art museums that are monuments to beauty and human creativity, only to disappoint with sad cafes full of pre-packaged, soulless food. Watch the IMA Café in the coming year to see if her comments stuck…
In and among the logistics of her visit, a few of us on the public programs staff had a quiet moment with Alice. We told her we liked working with her assistant Varun, to arrange her visit (a long-term, intense process). “Varun walked into my office, with his long, long eyelashes, and I said, ‘you’re hired.’”
There it is again: Alice’s capacity for intoxication with life—the most persuasive argument you’ll ever hear for art, or food.
Did you hear Alice Waters at IMA last Tuesday? What did you think?
