Join Vroman’s Bookstore, in partnership with the Elliott Bay Book Company and Third Place Books for an evening with Alice Waters!

From chef and food activist Alice Waters, an impassioned plea for a radical reconsideration of the way each and every one of us cooks and eats.

In We Are What We Eat, Alice Waters urges us to take up the mantle of slow food culture, the philosophy at the core of her life’s work. When Waters first opened Chez Panisse in 1971, she did so with the intention of feeding people good food during a time of political turmoil. Customers responded to the locally sourced organic ingredients, to the dishes made by hand, and to the welcoming hospitality that infused the small space–human qualities that were disappearing from a country increasingly seduced by takeout, frozen dinners, and prepackaged ingredients. Waters came to see that the phenomenon of fast food culture, which prioritized cheapness, availability, and speed, was not only ruining our health, but also dehumanizing the ways we live and relate to one another.

Over years of working with regional farmers, Waters and her partners learned how geography and seasonal fluctuations affect the ingredients on the menu, as well as about the dangers of pesticides, the plight of fieldworkers, and the social, economic, and environmental threats posed by industrial farming and food distribution. So many of the serious problems we face in the world today–from illness, to social unrest, to economic disparity, and environmental degradation–are all, at their core, connected to food. Fortunately, there is an antidote. Waters argues that by eating in a “slow food way,” each of us–like the community around her restaurant–can be empowered to prioritize and nurture a different kind of culture, one that champions values such as biodiversity, seasonality, stewardship, and pleasure in work.

This is a declaration of action against fast food values, and a working theory about what we can do to change the course. As Waters makes clear, every decision we make about what we put in our mouths affects not only our bodies but also the world at large–our families, our communities, and our environment. We have the power to choose what we eat, and we have the potential for individual and global transformation–simply by shifting our relationship to food. All it takes is a taste.

Alice Waters is the executive chef, founder, and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley, California. The vice president of Slow Food International, she founded the Edible Schoolyard and has received the French Legion of Honor, the WSJ Magazine Humanitarian Innovator Award, and three James Beard Awards.

Eric Schlosser is an investigative journalist and the author of Fast Food Nation, Reefer Madness, and, most recently, Command and Control, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has written for Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker, among others, and has received a number of journalism honors, including a National Magazine Award. Schlosser previously worked as a playwright for an independent film company. Two of his plays, Americans (2003) and We the People (2007), have been produced in renowned London theaters.

Event tickets include a hardcover copy of WE ARE WHAT WE EAT!.

Ticket options include in-store pick up, shipped domestically (allow up to 3 weeks for delivery), or shipped internationally (allow 4-5 weeks for delivery). Books will be mailed to you shortly after the event, via USPS Media Mail.  For those who choose in-store pick up, you will be contacted by Vroman’s via email shortly after the event and alerted as to when your book will be ready for pick up.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a Vroman’s Live event, we have partnered with Elliott Bay Book Company and Third Place Books for this virtual event to be held via Zoom Webinar.