BERKELEY, Calif. — Jennifer Sherman, general manager of Chez Panisse, gave the Teen Observer staff insight into the restaurant’s life, where the menus change daily in both the fixed-price restaurant and the more informal cafe, where diners can order a la carte.
It’s early on a Monday morning, and at 1517 Shattuck Ave here, not from the University of California, Berkeley, campus, employees at Chez Panisse are beginning their fresh food preparations before the lunch crowd arrives.
Sherman said when Alice Waters and friends opened the restaurant in 1971, she wanted to create a place where customers could feel as if they were visiting a friend for a dinner party. Waters’ travels to France on an exchange program in college, provided the inspiration. She fell in love with the practice of shopping locally and daily, preparing meals that were based on what was freshest that day, and lingering over long conversations.
Today, she and the staff go to markets but the food also comes to them from local ranchers and farmers. Meat arrived when we did, at 10 a.m., from a local farm; fruits were carefully picked through for the best in freshness and appearance for desserts that would be started that morning, too. Pasta was being made in the back; lettuce was being washed.
The oven fires in the open kitchens both upstairs and downstairs were lit for pizza baking as well as squid, roast and other items. And before any of these staffers came to work, a group arrived at 6 a.m. to start the day by taking inventory.
Sherman, who still thinks of herself first and foremost as a cook, said the restaurant is “a wonderful place to work because there are a lot of opinions, and everyone’s opinion matters.”
The restaurant and Waters, who is now vice president of Slow Food International, have gained fame for their use of local and organic produce.
“We only buy from farmers we know,” Sherman said, noting that Waters has forged connections between farmers and ranchers and the restaurant — and along the way, she helped to change grocery stores as well.
Sherman said that while today shoppers take for granted that many stores have fresh fruit and vegetables on display, it wasn’t always that way. She said Waters used to push stores nearby to carry certain items in season and told managers if they stocked them, she’d buy them.
The restaurant will celebrate its 44th year on Aug. 28 with a special menu and live music.
