Alice Waters thinks New Jersey s tomatoes are better than California s
The trailblazing chef of Chez Panisse is also opening a new restaurant in Los Angeles
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Alice Waters poses for a portrait at her home in Berkeley, California on Monday, March 2, 2020.Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
Bay Area culinary doyenne Alice Waters the owner and chef of seminal Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse is making waves in the news this week, including a spicy opinion on tomatoes and a planned new restaurant in Los Angeles.
Even as one of the chief proponents of California cuisine and the state’s plentiful produce, she’s not quite as hot on some of the fruits here. “When I think about corn and tomatoes in New Jersey, nothing I’ve ever had in California is better. We don’t have a climate that’s humid enough. The tomatoes are good here but not like Jersey,” she told
After a hard morning planting fresh shoots in the dunes on the edge of the Gobi Desert, 78-year-old farmer Wang Tianchang retrieves a three-stringed lute from his shed, sits down beneath the fiery midday sun, and starts to play.