Alice Waters

Founder, Chez Panisse · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

16statements → 7claims → 4claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1.81/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 19said about them ↓

4 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · 3 opinions · 3 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Alice argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Waters: Stockton relief initiative distributed over 4,000 pounds of farm food

“We've given at least 4000 pounds of food away and stocked it.”

Alice Waters May 14, 2020 ▶ 18:57 How I Built Resilience: Live with Samin Nosrat and Alice Waters & Fanny Singer

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

100% certainty 3

100% certainty 4

100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Alice Waters on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said16 What others said19 Episodes2

Everything Alice Waters said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Waters: Paying chefs for five days to work three prevents burnout

“And I think what really has created this long life for the restaurant is the fact that we don't have one person who is the main chef of the restaurant. We have two people, and they share their job, They work three days, and then they're paid for five. And it a…”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 31:48 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Waters: Scratch-Cooked School Lunches Can Fit USDA Reimbursement Budgets

“I know that we can make school lunch that can even fit into the minuscule budget of the USDA reimbursement. If we know how to cook, and we do not buy fast food, if we buy the food from the people who are doing it right, and directly,”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 47:39 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Waters: Chez Panisse was partly funded by Berkeley pot dealers

“It's true.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 21:00 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Opinion

Waters: Industrial food corporations greenwash products using farm-to-table buzzwords

“I'm troubled by it. I'm very troubled about the labeling on packages and what, how people are taking the values of our movement and greenwashing their industrial products.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 45:32 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Waters: An Organic Chicken Can Yield Three Meals for Family of Four

“I mean, I say that I can buy an organic chicken, and I can make at least three meals out of it for a family of four.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 47:23 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Opinion

Waters: US agriculture prioritized yield and shippability over flavor

“Well, I always thought we were a country that didn't have deep roots in agriculture, growing food for taste. We always grew it for quantity and shipability, but never flavor. And we never had a strong sense of the table As a place of conversation and pleasure,…”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 4:42 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Insight

Waters: Franchising Chez Panisse Would Compromise Values for Money

“I just couldn't imagine, knowing how franchises work, that there would ever be a way. ... Feels like selling out. I hate to use that term too, but it feels like I'm doing it just to make the money.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 39:05 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Opinion

Waters: Back-to-the-Land Movement Will Revitalize the Rural Economy

“The grow your own back to the land movement. It's something that I hope happens again and soon because that is what is going to bring us a rural economy.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 43:51 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Disclosure

Waters: I consider myself a cook and critic, not a chef

“I see myself as a really good cook. And I see myself as a great critic and taster. And I'm not a chef, chef.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 50:18 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Disclosure

Waters: Chez Panisse survived COVID shutdowns via bridge loans from friends

“We had the good luck to get a kind of bridge loan from some wonderful friends of the restaurant that are helping us get to the point where money comes from the government to pay people.”

Alice Waters May 14, 2020 ▶ 16:52 How I Built Resilience: Live with Samin Nosrat and Alice Waters & Fanny Singer

Assertion Supported

Waters: Stockton relief initiative distributed over 4,000 pounds of farm food

“We've given at least 4000 pounds of food away and stocked it.”

Alice Waters May 14, 2020 ▶ 18:57 How I Built Resilience: Live with Samin Nosrat and Alice Waters & Fanny Singer

Assertion Supported

Waters: Parents mortgaged their home to launch Chez Panisse

“And my parents mortgaged their house.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 20:36 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Assertion Supported

Waters: Chez Panisse pioneered crediting specific farmers and producers on menus

“We started writing their names on the cafe list. That this came from Bob Kennard's farm. That this came from Dal Porto's ranch. That this was Mas Masamoto's peach. And identifying the people who were growing and raising the food, we became in a way co-producer…”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 37:43 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Assertion Supported

Waters: Chez Panisse's opening night set menu cost $3.95

“I think it was three 95.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 25:42 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Disclosure

Waters: Chez Panisse Granted Equity to Instrumental Staff and Outside Investors

“We formed a corporation, and we had people that Brought money. Bought stock in this. And that helped us to run the restaurant. But I also gave shares to the people that were instrumental.”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 26:56 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

Insight

Waters: Hands-On Labor Teaches the True Value of Operational Roles

“Which is a big Montessori idea, that actually doing that work, that you're learning about its value, and what is critical, and what it really means to clean up the restaurant after hours, and what those people needed to be paid, what a dishwasher should be pai…”

Alice Waters Apr 8, 2019 ▶ 28:18 Chez Panisse: Alice Waters

The other half of the tape: Alice Waters's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 18 times in 11 episodes on How I Built This. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 7 Nikhil Arora 6 Alejandro Velez 2 Thomas Keller 1 Sam Calagione 1 Daniel Humm 1

Statements about Alice Waters, by other people (1)

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Alice Waters tasted and praised Back to the Roots' first mushroom batch

“He ends up plucking half, half of the mushrooms out of his bucket, And I remember he chops them up, sautes them up in the back of a restaurant, and she tries them, he tries them, we try them, and I remember Chef Alice Waters was like, man, these are delicious.”

Nikhil Arora Nov 8, 2021 ▶ 20:49 Back to the Roots: Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez