Alice Waters in Sebastopol

Alice Waters, who started a culinary revolution with her restaurant Chez Pannise and went on to become one of America’s most influential chefs ever, will be at the Sebastopol Farmer’s Market tomorrow (10am to 1pm) to help kick off Gravenstein Month. Waters is involved with the Slow Food movement, and the Gravenstein apple has been selected to enter Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, which consists of outstanding, traditional foods that are in danger of disappearing. Local author Michele Anna Jordan will interview Waters at the event.

The market is worth a trip to Downtown Sebastopol in its own right. The vendors are fantastic (any fruit I’ve ever bought from the Golden Nectar Farm booth has been excellent) and the atmosphere is great—casual and kid-friendly. Plus, tomorrow, you’ll get to see a legend. And the interview with Jordan is bound to be interesting. The two woman have a history and Jordan even won a James Beard Journalism Award for Magazine Writing for a feature story about the twenty-fifth anniversary of Chez Panisse.

Afterwards, a visit to the West County Grill might be in order. The Sebastopol eatery is co-owned by Chez Panisse alum (as well as Waters’ ex) Stephen Singer. (Another alumnus, Jonathan Waxman, is/was? also a co-owner, but last I heard he wasn’t involved in the restaurant anymore.) Then again, you might want to hold off until the restaurant irons out some kinks. Before it opened about a year ago, there were high hopes that The Grill would be a new incarnation of the Berkeley institution. But, as my friend Karen in Sebastopol put it, “This is no Chez Panisse.” We’ll see how that all turns out. For now, a safer bet might be to head out to Headsburg and enjoy a bite at the Downtown Bakery and Creamery, which was also started by a couple of Chez Panisse alumnae.