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Alice's Restaurant

March 15, 2009 4:00 PM

Legendary cook and natural food enthusiast Alice Waters creates a breakfast treat for Lesley Stahl.

Alice Waters' Crusade For Better Food
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by JimLosAltos October 31, 2009 2:56 PM EDT
Well, I've enjoyed eating at Chez Panisse over the years, but it is kind of sad that Alice Waters and Stahl don't recognize how bizarre this over-the-top demonstration is. In the bay area whence Waters hails, it is illegal to burn wood in a fireplace much of the year because of pollution. Using a fireplace full of wood to cook one egg?

And heavily soaking everything in olive oil, hello gastroenterologist.

Using fresh, local ingredients is a good thing.

Hyping $4 tomatoes, cooked hobo-style (Hobo's have an excuse, they need to burn scrap wood to stay warm at night), soaking everything olive oil -- yuppiness on steroids.
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by matzcom June 15, 2009 12:50 PM EDT
My wife and I were amused and aghast by your story on the dilettante cook. Kudos to her on the notion that we all should try to eat more natural foods from the garden------even Michelle Obama is into that.
But, the preparation side was a bit much and certainly inconsistent with the ?back to nature? kick.
Cooking the egg on a spoon over that huge open wood fire was over the top. My rough calculations indicate the heat gain to the kitchen provided by that wood burning monster took the equivalent of at least two home air conditioners to offset.

So, now we have the added air and heat pollution from the wood fire and the additional emissions from the local fossil fueled generating plant supplying the juice to the air conditioners. Let?s hope this trend does not catch on!

John W. Matzinger
4230 Northridge Way
Bellingham, WA 98226
360-671-6838
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