alice at the greenmarket

I've just watched a video at the New York Times website in which the videographer follows Alice Waters around the Union Square Greenmarket as she describes her approach- what she's thinking, how she chooses what she'll buy, what she looks for, and how she brings it all together. You can watch it here. For those who don't know, Alice Waters is a goddess in the food world- especially with regards to the organic/local/sustainable movements. She founded Chez Panisse in Berkeley (my new hometown!) in 1971 to highlight the pleasures of eating seasonal, organic foods at the height of their freshness. My friend and I are planning to make our first visit to Chez Panisse next week... I'll keep you posted about our experience there.

Anyway, what I found most interesting in the video of Alice is when she describes how she chooses which items she'll buy at the market. She makes two points that I'd like to comment on. First, she says, "I never have anything in mind when I come to the market- it's like a blank slate."

I think this approach to food is typical of the best professional chefs and very atypical of the rest of us (for worse, not for better). As an example, how often do you choose a recipe or plan a menu, then list all the ingredients you'll need to buy, and then go to the store or farmer's market (good for you!) to purchase them? I do it all the time- it is my regular process when I know I'll be preparing a meal. This approach works for us either because a) we already know what fruits and vegetables are in season and have planned accordingly, or b) we have grown accustomed to finding whatever we want, whenever we want it. Confess: have you ever tried to eat asparagus outside of the months of April and May? Then you weren't eating seasonally, and your asparagus either came from the other side of the world (lots of fossil fuels involved in shipping it to your town) or from a hothouse (huge energy consumer).

Alice Waters, on the other hand, goes in without preconceptions. Even if she suspects that zucchini will be in season, she waits to see whether there is fresh, delicious-looking zucchini at the market. Perhaps on a given day, the eggplant will look better. This is the advantage of going in without preconceived ideas.

I think we would all do better by ourselves, by our local farmers, and by our environment if we were to aim to make our meal choices based on what is freshest and most readily available at the market, rather than deciding our preferences in advance and requiring our markets to supply them. This approach does require a basic knowledge of what you'll be able to do with the fruits and vegetables that you find- occasionally difficult if you don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of recipes in your head like Ms. Waters does.

Next, Alice says, "I'm looking for food that speaks to me- that I'm looking at it and it's calling to me. It's something about the aliveness of it."

Here too, Alice is onto something. She is in touch with the food- something that many of us have lost. In the U.S., the ingredients in your dinner have been shipped on average 1500 miles to reach you (perhaps less for us lucky Californians, but we're talking averages here). No wonder most tomatoes in the supermarkets taste like watery cardboard. Do you think Alice would ever accept such tomatoes? No way. Now, if we could make ourselves listen to fruits and vegetables and only accept those that really speak to us, we'd enjoy our food more (and probably be healthier eaters). It certainly helps to start by shopping at farmer's markets- I know that much more food speaks to me there than at the local Safeway. But even if you're constrained to shopping at grocery stores, you can still use your senses (literally). Stop and smell the tomatoes. If they don't have that fresh, ripe tomato smell, don't bother to buy them. Ditto peaches. If the peppers are wilted, they will have lost most of their flavor. In short, if the food looks sad, it will make you sad too. Don't buy it. Chances are, it was picked weeks ago, shipped many miles to arrive at your supermarket, and has now been sitting on those shelves countless days, waiting for some sad sap to buy it. Don't be that sap! Better to alter your recipe or menu plan to incorporate fresh, happy ingredients than to use the tired fruits and veggies that your wrote on your grocery list.