Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Hayelin Choi (Illustrator)

Overview

Chef Alice Waters has always been friends with food.
The search for good food led Alice Waters to France, and then back home to Berkeley, California, where she started Chez Panisse restaurant and the Edible Schoolyard. For Alice, a delicious meal does not start in the kitchen, but in the fields with good soil and caring farmers.
Jacqueline Briggs Martin, author of the Caldecott winner, Snowflake Bentley , and Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table, tells how one child's search for delicious led to a dream for all children to share the joy of tasty food— the same joy we get from a beautiful song, or a starry sky.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780983661566
Publisher:	Readers to Eaters
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jacqueline Briggs Martin is the author of Snowflake Bentley, winner of the 1999 Caldecott Medal. Her last book, Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table, was named among the Best Nonfiction Books 2013 by School Library Journal and received a starred review from School Library Journal and Booklist. She has taught creative writing at Hamline College and University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She grew up on a farm in Maine and now lives in Mt. Vernon, IA. Learn more about Jacqueline at jacquelinebriggsmartin.com.

Hayelin Choi Hayelin Choi is an illustrator and textile designer. This is her first picture book. She is a graduate of School of Visual Arts and lives in Queens, New York. Learn more about Hayelin at hayelinchoi.com.

Alice Waters founded Chez Panisse restaurant in 1971 and the Edible Schoolyard in 1995. She won the James Beard Award for Best Chef in 1992 and Chez Panisse was named the Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet in 2001. Time magazine named her among "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2014.

Read an Excerpt

"Alice Waters has always been friends with food.
When she was three years old
she wore food —
a lettuce leaf skirt, radish bracelets,
a necklace of strawberries and a crown of asparagus —
and won first prize in a costume contest.

Little Alice was also looking for Delicious.
And she found it
in fresh green beans
and just-picked blueberries."

—from Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious

Editorial Reviews

09/01/2014
This adoring tribute to chef Alice Waters begins with a three-year-old Alice dressing in “a lettuce-leaf skirt, radish bracelets, a necklace of strawberries, a crown of asparagus,” and winning a costume contest. Bringing the lessons she learns about food home from her world travels, Waters shares meals with friends before opening her restaurant, Chez Panisse, and pioneering the Edible Schoolyard Project. Martin describes how Waters seeks out ingredients with integrity: “The delicious meals she wanted to serve to her customers began not in the kitchen but in the field, with good soil and thoughtful farmers.” Debut artist Choi fills the pages with cheerful scenes of smiling, multicultural children preparing and enjoying food; Waters herself contributes an afterword. Ages 5–up. Author’s agent: Michelle Humphrey, Martha Kaplan Literary Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Alice Waters has always been friends with food.
When she was three years old
she wore food —
a lettuce leaf skirt, radish bracelets,
a necklace of strawberries and a crown of asparagus —
and won first prize in a costume contest.

Little Alice was also looking for Delicious.
And she found it
in fresh green beans
and just-picked blueberries."

— from the book

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2014
Gr 2–4—This picture book biography takes on Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley and the Edible Schoolyard Project. Using an enthusiastic, conversational tone and a free verse form ("In her travels, Alice learned/wonderful food was like a symphony/that woke people up, made them happier"), Martin shows how Waters's fascination and love for fresh foods started young: at age three, the future chef won a costume contest, dressed up in a lettuce skirt, strawberry necklace, and crown made of asparagus. While in college, Waters studied cooking in France and brought home what she learned about selecting and preparing fresh foods. Before long, she opened Chez Panisse, a huge success. Finding fresh foods was not always easy, but as her reputation grew, growers began to come to her, and, eventually, her love and passion for fresh, locally grown food led her to organize the Edible Schoolyard Project, in which students plant and cultivate their own fruits and vegetables. Rendered with brush and black ink and enhanced digitally, the illustrations are colorful and simple. The book includes an afterword by Waters and an author's note elaborating on the subject's contributions to the local foods movement. A fine introduction to units on nutrition, healthy eating, and creative people making positive change.—Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA

School Library Journal

2014-07-16
Alice Waters, restaurateur and founder of the school garden-to-table program the Edible Schoolyard, is feted in this lively biography. Lines of black text are laid out over colorful double-page spreads that, through skilled use of Adobe Photoshop, have a pleasing resemblance to woodblock prints. In fact, the art greatly enhances the text, with its varied multitude of cheerful people growing, preparing and enjoying food, as well as the use of different framing techniques and vantage points. The book begins with a double-page spread showing, apparently, an oversize Waters serving salad to a happy group of multicultural children. The text, arranged in a quasi-free-verse form, reads: "Some people want new red shoes. / Some want to sing on stage / or play basketball. / … / [Chef Alice Waters,] She wants / the hungry kids, the happy kids, / the tall kids, the short kids / to have a delicious lunch—every day." The text becomes less patronizing and more interesting as it progresses, chronicling the life of one contemporary foodie who has worked to make a difference in children's nutritional lives. A tendency toward textual insipidity is mitigated by the artwork's humor and details, as well as by several informative sidebars. An obvious choice in communities that have active Edible Schoolyards, it may spark some interest in communities that do not—yet. (afterword, author's note, bibliography, resources) (Picture book/biography. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews