Member-only story

At Home at the Table

Amelia Pape

This essay originally appeared in Terroir Review on July 29, 2018

Fruit preparation at Chez Panisse

As a kid growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I had long dreamed of a life out West, shopping at farmers’ markets and hosting dinner parties featuring earthy Pinot Noir and picturesque salads with shavings of candy-striped Chioggia beets. My muse was the pioneering chef Alice Waters, whose books I devoured and whose legendary restaurant, Chez Panisse, I longed to visit.

At 33 years old, I finally got there. The meal was the centerpiece of a weeks-long motorcycle trip with my boyfriend, Winston, down the Oregon Coast, through the Mendocino Valley and across the San Francisco Bay. I expected some kind of palace in Chez Panisse, a château-like facade framed by yarrow blooms and sweeping oak branches. But as we walked down Shattuck Avenue, the street Winston grew up on, the entryway loomed into view and I found nothing palatial about it. A simple bouquet in a ceramic vase topped a vintage wooden side table in the entryway. Hung carefully from the north and south walls in the foyer were movie posters.

Waters named Chez Panisse after a fictional character, Honoré Panisse, from her favorite French films: Marcel Pagnol’s 1930s trilogy about life in the port of Marseilles. The characters aren’t nobility; they’re working-class townspeople who gather in waterfront cafés, sipping pastis and chit-chatting…

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Amelia Pape
Amelia Pape

Written by Amelia Pape

Systems strategist and network steward at Converge. Social entrepreneur, enthusiastic home cook, aspiring ameliorator.

No responses yet

Write a response