Fillet

  Vive
  Chez
   Panisse!

Mary Lukanuski

     Café at Chez Panisse
     1517 Shattuck Avenue
     Berkeley, California 94707
     (510) 548-5525

The story of how Alice Waters' culinary passion created a gourmet juggernaut and revolutionized American cuisine is well known. Waters and her restaurant, Chez Panisse, are legendary. Her cookbooks abound; and her influence is global, as many chefs have gone forth from her kitchens to proselytize her word.

While the Restaurant at Chez Panisse is the jewel in Waters' crown, it is the work of the Café, with its less formal menu, that continues to astonish.

The Café and Restaurant share the same lovely arts-and-crafts extended house in the "gourmet ghetto" of Berkeley, California. Once through the small enclosed wisteria-flanked brick courtyard, it's up a few stairs and into a small hallway. There one can peek into the Restaurant with its warm and rich setting or head upstairs to the Café.

The Café's ambience is just as warm and rich as the Restaurant, but its smaller tables and less formal service suggests a more intimate, casual elegance.

While the menu at the café changes daily - the Restaurant menu is published weekly - there's a consistent formula. You can expect several appetizers of salads or pizzas to start - the fava bean gorgonzola salad is earthy yet light; the warm goat cheese salad rescues your mouth from dull imitations to the inspiration. Entrées offered usually include one or two pastas, one or two fish dishes, chicken, and perhaps a lamb or beef. Last time, there was a luscious grilled sea bass with a light crust and tender lamb chops served in a herbed wine sauce. The pastas are always intriguing and filling.

Deserts feature the well-loved crème caramel - remember Alice is a francophile - as well as a seasonal fruit cobbler or tart, homemade ice cream, and something chocolately.

So what makes the Café stand out from the dozens upon dozens of cafés offering similar Mediterranean-inspired food? Waters offers the finest vegetables, meats, and grains of the season. Some detractors have said that this isn't cooking, it's shopping. But it goes beyond both - it's foraging and then encouraging and nurturing local farmers to produce the best organic fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy. It is a field-to-table attitude that has established Alice Waters as the foremost voice in the philosophy of sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture may not be on your mind when your review the Café menu, but your mouth will certainly notice the difference. The apple juice isn't just sickly sweet tan water, it's local, organic, dark brown essence of apple. A plate of generously sliced heritage tomatoes is a delight to the eye, nose, and mouth with the varied colors, textures and the rich scent of basil and olive oil. The white bean soup is a silky purée that warms and nourishes.

And that's exactly what the Café at Chez Panisse does, it nourishes your eyes, your nose, your mouth and most importantly your spirit.

Mary Lukanuski is a food writer and restaurant critic. She makes incredible latkes.